Family Matters
by SometimesGhostsSeeKids
Summary: My English teacher once told me there's a word for that kind of phrase. What was it again? Oh, yeah. An oxymoron. In which Percy, pushed to his breaking point, decides to join Luke on his quest to destroy the gods. Starts off at the end of The Lightning Thief.
1. The Light of my Life Goes Out

**Yo yo yo. So I had this idea years ago and never got around to writing it until now. I don't think I've seen any PJO fics where Percy finally gets fed up with the gods' shenanigans and says, "Screw it, you guys suck. I'm gonna go work for Kronos now." So, I made one. Hope you enjoy!**

**It's gonna start off slow at first, and much of the events and dialogue from the first few chapters will be taken straight from Uncle Rick's _The Lightning Thief, _but I added new stuff here and there. If you see anything that sounds familiar, that's because I didn't write it!**

I stared up in awe at the massive wooden gates, tall enough to allow several of me stacked on top of each other through with room to spare. Gold engravings depicting the (rather bloody) history of the gods were etched into the doorways. I remembered a lot of it from Mr. Brunner's—_ahem, Chiron's_—class, but the drawings I recognized ended after the fall of the Roman empire. After that, well... I didn't really remember learning that the Hundred Year's War was really just another dispute between Poseidon and Athena over mortal favor, or that the Bubonic Plague had resulted from a mishap in Hecate's alchemy lab. As my eyes scanned the doorways, I began to wonder just how much of human history had been shaped by the gods' carelessness. My thoughts turned to the weapon of mass destruction currently residing in the backpack I had slung around my shoulder. Even now I could hear it crackling with power. If Annabeth, Grover, and I hadn't found the master bolt in time, just how many more mortals would have perished in the resulting conflict? The thought made me shiver.

Behind me sprawled Olympus, home of the gods and ruled by the mighty Zeus. And it was absolutely beautiful. Satyrs and nymphs tended to elegant gardens while pedestrians adorned in togas and sandals bustled about the streets. The shouts of peddlers rang from the market, accompanied by the symphonious voices of the muses as they sang for the crowds. Children chased each other through the vineyards, laughing in merriment, while the livestock lazily bathed in the sun. It astounded me that all of this was hovering just over the Empire State building, and that no one down in the city was any the wiser. Life here seemed pleasant, simple, and yet I couldn't help but notice the sense of unease pervading the residents as I passed through the town.

I must have really been an eyesore to them. It had been a long couple weeks, and frankly, I was exhausted. It seemed that the three of us had been constantly on the move, whether it be running from monsters or chasing down leads for the missing weapon. It had been a while since I'd had a decent night of sleep, and the plane ride back to New York had been nothing short of terrifying. If it weren't for my beat-up Camp Half-Blood T-shirt, the residents probably would have thought I was just some hobo from the city that had accidentally wandered up here. It didn't take long for me to notice the nervous looks sent my way after stepping onto the streets of Olympus. Between my rugged appearance and the fact that it was the day of the summer solstice, they must have pieced together that I was the demigod tasked with retrieving Zeus's stolen master bolt, and that I'd be the deciding factor in determining if they'd go to war.

_Okay, no pressure_, I thought as the marble gateway opened on its own. Inside, the Hall of the Gods was slowly revealed. The place made Yankee stadium feel like a kid's playset. Marble columns extended upwards endlessly to an impossibly tall ceiling, a sky within the sky. A wide red carpet fringed by black silk extended from the doorway and ran down the stairs further across the hall. Torches blazed in bronze braziers all up and down the carpet, casting flickering shadows onto the pillars and floor. And that was just the foyer. At the end of the hall and just down the stairs, the building widened into a circular room in which twelve massive thrones had been erected, the base of each seat reaching to just above my head.

At the top of the inverted U, elevated above the rest, sat a god that could only be Zeus. Even from the front of the hall, I could clearly see the electricity crackling behind his eyes as they bored into me. His bulging muscles remained motionless but tense, still prominent even underneath his pinstriped suit. If he stood up, I'd have probably guessed him to be about 15 feet tall, maybe even more. Through his impressive beard, dark and stormy grey, his lips were curled into a frown as he scrutinized me.

I suddenly wished I'd had the time to shower and change.

Sitting directly to the left of him was my father. Poseidon wore leather sandals, khaki Bermuda shorts, and a navy blue Hawaiian shirt which was missing a few buttons at the top, revealing a physique that was just as muscular as his brother's. Unlike Zeus, Poseidon's facial hair was short and neatly trimmed. He had a deep tan, and his face had that brooding look that had often gotten me branded a rebel. That radiant glow, that warm smile that I remembered from him when I was a baby, was nowhere to be found. He wouldn't look at me, nor at Zeus. He stared off to the side, a deep scowl on his face. His eyes were pained.

His throne was more of a deep-sea fishing chair, the swiveling kind, complete with a cup holder and a hole for a fishing pole. Except instead of a fishing pole, a golden trident rested in the chair, green power emanating from its tips. Poseidon gripped it so firmly that his knuckles were turning white. I could feel the tension in the air as I got closer, like they had just finished an argument.

I descended the stairs and stepped into the center of the thrones, feeling the overbearing weight of history pressing down on my shoulders. Here was where laws were made, wars were declared, and the world was ruled. At that moment, I was glad that there were only two godly presences in the room. If the full council had been there, I didn't know if I'd have even been able to stand.

I approached the two gods, stopping first at the closest one and kneeling. "Father," I greeted him. A moment passed, and I heard no response. I dared to glance up.

Poseidon regarded me with an angry glare, his jaw tightened in barely concealed rage. His sea green eyes churned like a swelling tide just before a hurricane. My shoulders shrunk inward as I returned my gaze to the ground. Had I done something wrong? Did I offend him somehow? _Be polite_, Annabeth had said. _The gods are quick to anger._

Zeus cleared his throat. "Should you not pay respects to the master of this hall first?"

I blanched, mentally kicking myself. Of course, acknowledging his brother first in his own home would be seen as an affront to Zeus, and I was already on his bad side. Another wrong move and I might end up as a stain on the floor. I began to sweat. I had been in the room for less than two minutes and had already offended both gods. Add that to the list with Ares and Hades and I already had a quarter of Olympus hating my guts. At this rate, it wouldn't be long before I was blasted to dust.

I glanced up once more. Poseidon simply looked away, his eyes narrowed, as if he couldn't bear to look at me. I turned towards Zeus, who sat with an expectant look on his face, his frown now seeming permanent.

"Ah, um... my apologies, Lord Zeus." Unsteadily, I rose and knelt down at Zeus's feet.

A moment passed as he regarded me. Finally, "Rise, thief." I did as I was told. I wanted to correct him, tell him that he got it wrong, but I thought it wise at that moment not to interrupt him.

"It is the day of the summer solstice," he boomed. "I gave you until today to return what you have stolen from me, but I do not see my bolt. Do you have it or not?"

I unslung the bag from my shoulder and set it on the ground, unzipping it in the process. "I do, my lord," I said, producing the metal cylinder from the bag. I extended it to him, feeling the metal slide from my grasp as he took it. He uncapped it, and I could immediately feel the static in the air as the bolt crackled to life, reacting to its master's hand. "You're wrong about me, though," I dared. "I'm not the thief."

As he slid his hand down the bolt, it extended until it was proportional to his godly size. "Is that so?" he asked, examining it. What he was looking for, I wasn't sure. To me, it just looked like a bolt of lightning, frozen in time. "I guess you'd better start explaining where you got this, then."

So I told him about my quest, or all of the more relevant details anyways. I doubt Zeus wanted to hear about how I let zoo animals loose into Las Vegas, or about Disco Darrin trapped at the Lotus Hotel. His face grew wearier as the story went on.

"So, you implicate my son in this treachery." I waited, unsure of how to respond. I could only hope that he believed me. Zeus sighed. "I sense you speak the truth. However, this is most unlike him. Ares has an unflinching habit of starting conflicts, though he has never dared to provoke me. Hmm…" The god frowned. "To think he would steal from right underneath my nose… He grows bold."

"Ares had help, my lord. I think he was only roped into this after the bolt had been stolen."

I told him about the dreams I had been having, the ones where he and father were fighting and the menacing presence was goading them on. I told him about the momentary breath of malice on the beach, where time seemed to stop and _something_ made Ares back off from killing me. I said that Ares had hinted that he was having dreams similar to mine, and in these dreams, they told us to take the bolt to the Underworld.

Zeus looked confused now. "Then you suggest my brother Hades is behind this after all."

"No, Lord Zeus, I've been in the presence of Hades." To my right, Poseidon shifted in his throne and frowned, but at least he was looking at me now. "This feeling was different. It was more like what I felt when we were close to that pit. I think whoever is down there was the one talking to me in my dreams. The one behind all of this."

The two gods were silent for a long time. "My lords," I said. "That was the entrance to Tartarus, wasn't it?"

Zeus and Poseidon turned to each other. They had a quick, intense discussion in Ancient Greek. All I could make out was the word pater. Father.

Poseidon made some kind of suggestion, but Zeus cut him off. Poseidon's rage returned in force, and he attempted to argue. Zeus grew annoyed in return. Feeling their godly energies radiating more intensely, I took a step back in discomfort, feeling like I'd been placed inside a microwave. The shouting increased in volume until Zeus finally held up a hand and shouted, "Enough!"

Thunder boomed outside of the hall. I looked up at the glass ceiling that seemed to be miles above. It had darkened outside. I could only wonder what this looked like to all the residents of Olympus who were wondering if WWIII was about to start.

"You forget your place, Lord Poseidon," Zeus boomed. "I am King of Olympus, and my word is final. You will speak no more of this, or war will be had despite your son's hard work on this quest."

I waited with bated breath. Poseidon's glare at his brother was so intense that I could feel my skin beginning to burn. After a moment, he exhaled forcefully and lowered his head, relenting. Zeus's own gaze softened.

"I'm sorry for your loss, brother. Truly, I am. But you must not act hastily in your grief. We simply need more information first. For now, we will keep this under wraps to prevent widespread panic." Poseidon closed his eyes and nodded. I watched his expression carefully. What exactly had he lost?

"Now then," Zeus continued. He rose to his feet, towering over me and clutching his bolt in one of his hands. My eyes widened and I took another step back. Was he going to-?

"I must go and cleanse this in the waters of Lemnos, to remove the human taint from its metal." A sigh of relief involuntarily escaped my lips. I thought that Zeus hadn't noticed my discomfort, but a small smile on his lips betrayed him. He's enjoying this, I thought dryly.

He paused and regarded me for a moment, his expression softening just as it had after his argument with Poseidon. "You have done me a service, boy. Few others can claim the same feat."

"I had help, sir. Grover Underwood and Annabeth Ch—"

"As your reward, I shall let you live." I stared at him. "Your existence is a testament to a broken oath. I do not trust you, Perseus Jackson. But for the sake of peace between my brother and I, your life will be spared. Do not presume to fly again. Do not let me find you here when I return. Else you will taste this bolt, and it will be your last sensation."

I had to avert my gaze as he disappeared in a blinding flash of lightning. Thunder rumbled the hall. As the sound faded, we were left in eerie silence. Poseidon propped an elbow onto the arm of his throne and rested his head in his hand, wearily massaging his temples. Stress lines wrinkled his forehead. I wondered how a being with so much power and energy could appear so tired. My thoughts drifted back to the pit, the unnerving voice that came from it echoing in my ears.

"Um, sir..."

"Your mother is dead, Perseus."

My breath hitched in my throat. Everything I wanted to say to my father, all of the questions I wanted to ask him, and feelings I wanted to share… They died right then and there. I looked up at Poseidon, figuring it had to be some kind of sick joke, but as I looked into his eyes, I felt cold, unforgiving dread stab its way through my body and tighten in my chest.

"In a rage, Hades killed her after you fled from the Underworld."

It didn't make sense. I had just seen her that morning, and now I was being told I'd never see her again. How could she be dead, without me having known it? Without me having _felt_ it?

I couldn't breathe. I couldn't think. I could barely even hear the words my father spoke. It was all I could do to keep my legs from giving out underneath me. The word repeated over and over in my mind. _Dead, dead, dead…_

"You could have saved her," Poseidon continued. His words were accusatory, but his tone was glassy and lifeless, like when you stood at the shore on a cloudy day and couldn't tell what the sea was thinking. "You could have left that failure of a satyr behind, or that blasted daughter of Athena, but instead you chose to sacrifice your mother."

Each word felt like a sledgehammer to the chest. My breaths came in short, ragged bursts. He blamed me. I couldn't help the choked sob that escaped my lips as I finally sank to my knees. My father _blamed_ me.

I tried to stammer out an excuse. "I thought... the helm—I promised I'd return it—"

Poseidon lifted his trident and slammed it to the ground, silencing me and sending out a shock wave that rattled my teeth. "And you thought he'd believe you?!" he yelled, raw power radiating in every direction. "In his eyes, you came into his home to threaten him and fled when he called you out on your supposed thievery. Of course, he'd be angry. Did you not expect such a reaction from the Lord of the Dead?"

I found myself back in the Underworld. Before me, I could see my mother, my beautiful mother, bound in a golden light. She looked exactly the way I remembered her when she was taken from me on that dark and stormy night, her face frozen in terror, as if the Minotaur's massive hand was still clenched around her throat.

I felt a blast of energy, like what I felt when the argument between Zeus and Poseidon flared up, only this was much, much worse. Hades was there now, bellowing in rage, cursing us thieving demigods as the ground shook and began to smolder. I watched in horror as my mother's flesh began to melt from her bones, unable to look away. Hades' wrath absolutely incinerated her.

When the vision ended, I was a sobbing, sniveling mess on the ground at Poseidon's feet. At that moment, the final line of the prophecy struck me. _You will fail to save what matters most, in the end_. Panic began to fill my chest like a balloon, and I began grasping. Grasping for anything to keep my head above water, to prevent myself from drowning in despair. I found anger, and I held onto it like my life depended on it. I pulled myself to my feet, using it as a crutch, and I gave my father the most venomous look I could muster.

"Don't blame me for this," I spat. "If you had done literally anything to protect us, this wouldn't have happened. Hades sent Furies and Hellhounds and even the stupid _Minotaur_ after me. If you had given even a little bit of help to that 'failure of a satyr' in getting us to camp, we would've been fine!"

Poseidon was eerily silent. It was as if all the anger and rage he had displayed with Zeus had drained away, leaving emptiness in its wake. But I knew very well what happened when the ocean receded.

"You know there was nothing I could do." His voice sounded dangerously like a levee threatening to break. "The Fates do not allow us to interfere with the lives of mortals."

"You could have done _something_," I said desperately. "Zeus—Zeus saved Thalia by turning her into a tree..."

Even as I said the words, I knew it sounded ridiculous. I imagined another tall pine up on Half-Blood hill next to Thalia's, and how strange it would be to pass by it every summer, knowing my mom was still inside. I wondered if that was what it was like for Annabeth and Luke.

A great sigh escaped my father's chest, and his expression turned from fire to ice. "I am sorry, Perseus," he said distantly. "You are right. It was wrong of me to blame you. It seems a mere 50 years was enough for me to forget why I made my sacred oath in the first place. The children of the gods attract misfortune to themselves and those around them. More so with children of the elder gods. I knew this, and yet I had you anyways. It was a mistake I shant soon forget."

My eyes stung. That's all I was to him. A mistake. 'A testament to a broken oath,' as Zeus had called me. It was no wonder he struggled to look at me. I sat there in silence for a moment, feeling miserable with myself.

"If it is any solace to you, know that Hades placed her in Elysium when his helm was returned. I made sure of it."

An uncomfortable pause. Truth be told, it did make me feel slightly better. I had only gotten a brief glimpse of Elysium when we passed through the Underworld, but I could see why it was so sought after. It was an enchantingly beautiful place, sort of like the town I had passed through on my way up the mountain, but transcendent in a way. It definitely seemed like a place where Mom could be happy. At the very least, she wouldn't have to deal with Smelly Gabe anymore.

I looked at him again, and our eyes met for maybe only the second time that day. Pain and regret swam amongst a sea of other, more obscure emotions. He was hurting just as much as I was, I realized.

"...Thank you. Sir." I was still angry with him, but I didn't want to push him any further. We had already said enough to each other.

"You should go now, boy. As should I. Best not to linger here when my brother returns."

The wooden gates groaned shut behind me. I looked down upon Olympus once more. The storm clouds that had formed from Zeus's anger had subsided, and the town seemed to be carrying on as it had before. As I walked through the city of the gods, conversations stopped and heads turned. The muses halted their concerts. I tried to imagine my mom amongst these people, living it up in a vibrant city such as this down in the Underworld.

The thought only sent a pang of sadness through my heart. This coming year might have been the first one where I would have actually gotten to go to school close to home. I knew what I was now, so there was no need for me to hole up in a boarding school dozens of miles away for my protection. I could have gone to class in the morning, hung out with friends after school, and then gone home to have dinner with my mom every evening. Like a normal teenager. But now that was impossible, and I'd never have dinner with her again, or see her smile when she gets home from work, or hear her tell me it's all right when I get kicked out of school.

People, naiads, satyrs—they all looked at me with gratitude and respect, and knelt to me as I passed like I was some kind of hero. The thought made me scoff. How was it that I was able to stop all of Western civilization from plunging into war, but I couldn't even save my own mom? It made me angry. Angry at Zeus for threatening me with the death penalty without any proof I was guilty. At Hades for taking my mom away from me. At Ares for tricking me. At my father for calling me a mistake. But mostly at myself.

Poseidon had been right. I couldn't help being born, but that didn't change the fact that my existence only seemed to cause misery.

Fifteen minutes later, I found myself back on the streets of Manhattan, standing in the shadow of the Empire State Building. I glanced up, but the floating mountain in the sky was nowhere to be seen. I shook my head. Around me, pedestrians were walking by, pigeons fearlessly weaving in between their feet on the sidewalks. None of them seemed aware that the nation had nearly descended into war.

I looked further into the city. My apartment was only fifteen minutes away by taxi. I wouldn't be living there anymore, I thought glumly. My name may have been cleared by the authorities, but I knew Gabe would never welcome me back. Not that I wanted to go live with him. He could marinate in his filth for the rest of his life for all I cared. But still, I had a few belongings left there that I wanted to keep. I decided to get them later. Gabe was a pack rat. I had no doubt my things would still be there the next time I visited.

Placing two fingers in my mouth, I blew a whistle that only years of growing up in Manhattan could perfect. As I got into the yellow cab, I gave the driver the address for Half-Blood Hill, and then we were off.

**So the prophecy was taken a little more literally this time. Sally died when Hades unleashed the earthquake that shook Los Angeles. Poor Percy. And Poseidon didn't really make him feel any better, either. **

**Do you like it? Hate it? Want some more of it? Let me know in the reviews!**


	2. We Celebrate, and I Say Goodbye

**Once again, all recognizable writing comes from Rick Riordan.**

* * *

By the time I had reached the Big House, a whole crowd of campers had noticed my arrival, which is exactly the opposite of what I had wanted. I was hoping I could sneak down to my cabin without anyone seeing so I could get some alone time, but the Fates seemed to have other plans for me. Annabeth, Grover, and Chiron descended from the Big House steps, and after that it was flowers and laurel wreaths and crowd-surfing all the way down to the mess hall, where a feast had been prepared in our honor.

For the first time since I moved into Cabin Three, I didn't have to sit alone at mealtime. The head table had been prepared for the three of us, and we got to eat with Chiron and Mr. D, the latter not looking too thrilled about it. I scraped a little less food into the brazier than I normally did. I was starving, and given how our conversation went on Olympus, it wasn't like it was winning me any favor points with Poseidon anyways.

It was nice being able to overlook the entire mess hall as I ate. I had never seen so much food in one place before, nor had I ever seen the campers in such high spirits, sans the Ares cabin, who still looked pretty miffed that I disgraced their dad.

The blue Coke I willed into my goblet had never tasted so bittersweet. As I sipped it, little memories of my mom filled my head, like how she would read Greek myths to me as bedtime stories when I was a child, or how she would hold me when I cried about not having any friends, or those weekends that we got to spend together when she took me to Montauk, just the two of us.

I felt a gaze resting on me. Wiping the mist out of my eyes, I scanned the crowd in front of me, and my search came to a stop on Luke. He was staring at me contemplatively, his scar seeming to have darkened several shades, but when he saw me looking at him, he flashed a tiny smile that didn't quite reach his eyes and went back to eating with his cabin.

I noticed Grover was also giving me a funny look, but that didn't really surprise me. Grover had always been good at reading my emotions, so he must have known something was up the moment I got back. It was just a trait of being a satyr, I supposed. I gave him a look that said, "I'll tell you later."

When the feasting was done, Annabeth, Grover, and I led a procession down to the bonfires where we got to burn the burial shrouds our cabins had made for us in our absence. I thought it was a bit morbid, but apparently it had been a long standing tradition at Camp Half-Blood. Before Chiron had stopped allowing campers to go on quests a few years ago, heroes often wouldn't make it back alive from their adventures. These shrouds were created to commemorate them and burned after the quest ended, whether the heroes survived or not.

Annabeth's shroud was so beautiful. Grey silk embroidered with owls, the kind that appeared on the crest of ancient Athens. I told her it seemed a waste not to bury her in it. She punched me and told me to shut up.

Being the only son of Poseidon in the camp, I didn't have any cabinmates to make me a shroud. Instead, the Ares cabin had volunteered to make one for me. I was taken aback at first—I thought they wanted nothing to do with me—until they actually brought the shroud out.

They'd painted smiley faces with Xs for eyes around the border of an old bed sheet, and in the middle, sprawled in red paint, was the word, "LOSER". It was fun to burn.

As the children of Apollo led the sing-alongs, I was suddenly very happy I hadn't snuck off to my cabin to be by myself. I was surrounded by my old Hermes cabin mates, Annabeth's brothers and sisters from Cabin Six, and a bunch of Grover's satyr buddies who were admiring Grover's new searcher's license, presented to him by the Council of Cloven Elders who were impressed with his bravery during the quest. Victory chants sounded, s'mores were roasted, and even the Ares campers seemed to get into it. Clarisse and one of her siblings pulled flaming sticks from the fire and dueled, the other campers taking bets on who would win. I don't think anyone was really surprised when Clarisse emerged without any burns.

Despite the heart wrenching news I'd been given earlier, I found myself just sitting back and smiling. The festivities were all welcome distractions from my grief, and I knew that as long as I had my friends around, I'd be ok.

Eventually, the fire began to die down, and the campers moved in groups back to their respective cabins. I hovered by the campfire a little longer, a little hesitant to go back to my cabin. All I had wanted earlier that day was to be by myself, but now the thought of being alone filled me with dread. Grover remained by my side, even as all his satyr buddies left for the woods. One by one, the straggling campers gave me their congratulations on a job well done and said goodnight. Chiron trotted back towards the Big House after giving me a salute. I saw Annabeth leave with her brothers and sisters, but when she looked back and saw the two of us, she said something to them and jogged back over.

The dying fire must have given enough light to see our expressions, because she slowed when she got close. "Is something wrong?" she asked, her voice concerned. "If I'm interrupting something, I can—"

"It's alright," I said quickly. "You can stay. I was just about to tell Grover how my meeting with Zeus and my father went." Grover nodded.

"Oh, ok," Annabeth said. She took a seat on the bench below, pulling up her legs to sit cross-legged so that she was facing us. "Let's hear it," she said.

I told them about how Zeus still thought I was the thief when I brought his bolt in, but in the end he believed me when I told him everything that had happened. I told them about the argument he and my father had concerning the thing in the pit, and how Zeus had given my father a gag order about it. As far as I knew, the order didn't extend to me, or if it had, I was sure my ears would have been ringing with thunder by now. Annabeth had a deeply troubled look on her face.

"You know what was down there, don't you?" I asked.

"It... could be a number of things. None of them good." She remained pensive for a moment. "This voice you've been hearing in your dreams, did it feel like that presence on the beach?"

"So the both of you _did_ feel that," Grover said. "That was so bizarre. It felt like I was moving through molasses."

I nodded to both of them.

"Then I suppose there's only one thing it could be," she said, resting her chin on her knees. "Have you guessed?"

Grover looked completely lost. He picked up a soda can that one of the campers had left behind and began gnawing on it. I remembered the argument Zeus and Poseidon had. _Pater_, they had said. My mind travelled back to the field trip where Mrs. Dodds attacked me. Mr. Brun—Chiron had asked me this very question. "Kronos," I said. "The titan lord."

A chill ran up my spine, and I could feel Grover stiffen beside me. Annabeth drew her knees up to her chin, hugging her legs. The fire sputtered out, leaving glowing coals behind, but even those were fading quickly. I briefly wondered if I should share this tactic with the local fire department.

Annabeth glared at me. "You really shouldn't—"

"I know, I know," I interrupted her. "Names have power yada yada."

We sat in silence for a moment, pondering what the return of the titan lord could mean in the next few years. I supposed there'd be a lot more monsters floating around the country. If there was ever a good time to be a demigod, this was not it.

Grover stopped biting into his can for a moment and shifted uncomfortably. "Um, I don't mean to pry, but is that what was bothering you earlier?"

I looked at him, and remembered how he was staring at me during dinner. "Oh," I said. "Uh, no. There's more." Maybe Annabeth and Grover had sensed my change in tone, because they were quiet now, their eyes fixed on me. I wasn't sure why I was so hesitant to tell them. It was a personal matter, but they were both my closest friends and they deserved to know. I guess I was just afraid of how they'd take the news. When we were in the Underworld, they had seemed even more upset than I had been about leaving my mom behind. I didn't want them to blame themselves.

I took a deep breath and told them exactly what my father said to me after Zeus left, minus the part about how he wanted me to leave one of them behind. It was even harder for me to say it out loud than it was to hear it from Poseidon the first time, maybe because it made her death real, or because it meant that I had to accept that it was true. I could hear my voice cracking as I spoke, could feel the wetness on my face.

Grover had a hand on my back, and he moved it in small circles. I was grateful for that. It didn't take away from the pain I was feeling, but it was soothing. I wondered if a satyr's empathic abilities extended to providing comfort like this or if Grover was just that good at it.

I could hear Annabeth sniffling in front of me as I wiped at my eyes, but other than that, she just listened. It was another thing I was grateful for. I didn't really want them to pity me, or worse, apologize for something that wasn't their fault. I just needed them to be there, and they were, and that was all I could ask for.

We were silent for a long time. Grover was the first to speak. "I'm so sorry, Percy." His voice was tinged with guilt, and it made my fists tighten. "I—I should've used my pearl on her. It was because of me she was captured—"

"No," I interrupted. Grover looked taken aback at my forcefulness. "We've been over this already. I don't want to trade lives. If I could redo our mission to the Underworld... I'd do it the same way." He stared at me, stunned. "It wasn't your fault," I said.

"And it wasn't _your_ fault either, Seaweed Brain. Your father was wrong. Honestly, the nerve..." Annabeth's fists were clenched, tears threatening to spill. "It's not fair," she said. "Monsters already make our lives dangerous enough as it is. You shouldn't have to worry about being killed by gods, too. We're supposed to be a family, for gods' sakes."

"Annabeth..." Grover said, stunned. She was hugging her legs to her chest, eyes glistening in the moonlight. "You're worried about _him_, aren't you?" he asked. She sniffled and nodded.

I blinked, feeling like I missed a conversation. Annabeth gave me a half-hearted smile. "I decided to take your advice," she said. "When Grover and I got back today, the first thing I did was write a letter to my dad."

"You're going to live with him for the rest of the year," I guessed.

She nodded. "I mean, if he says yes, I'd like to give it another try. But..."

"You're worried he'll get hurt because of you."

Her smile looked more and more like a grimace. "It was the reason why going home two years ago didn't work out for me, remember? The monster attacks were getting more frequent, and we had two little toddlers in the family. My step-mother wanted me gone, but my dad didn't have the heart to kick me out. So I left, and haven't spoken to them since. Until today."

She was scared for them, I realized. She was thinking that what happened to my mom could happen to her family as well. And honestly, she was right. The monsters were getting worse, and the gods didn't exactly care what they stepped on. Simply being around her family was putting them at risk. But did that mean we were supposed to seclude ourselves away in this camp and never interact with anyone on the outside? I looked up at the tall pine on Half-Blood Hill, and then over at the sea on the other side of the camp. I loved it here, but picturing myself living here for the rest of my life made me feel claustrophobic.

Honestly, I had no idea what I'd do in her situation.

"I'm sorry," she said, wiping her face with the back of her hand. "I shouldn't be burdening you with this."

"My problems don't make yours any less important."

"Maybe not. But you just lost your mom. You're grieving. I don't want you to worry about me on top of all this."

Silence fell on the fire pit. The cool night breeze rustled the trees around us as we were left to our own thoughts. After a moment, Grover stood, stretching out his back. "Boy, I sure am glad I'm not a demigod. Monsters don't follow me around, I live twice as long..."

"You smell like a barnyard," I supplied helpfully, grinning in spite of myself.

Grover scoffed in mock offense. "Hey, I resent that statement."

Annabeth wrinkled her nose. "No, he's right."

"Blaa-aa. Jerks."

I couldn't help myself. I laughed. Grover smiled and held out a hand, pulling me to my feet. I still didn't really want to go back to my cabin, but it was getting late and Grover and Annabeth were both looking sleepy. It had been a long day for us, and I could feel my eyelids growing heavy as well.

Grover looked hesitant to leave. I wouldn't have really minded having company tonight, but it was kind of forbidden to let anyone besides children of Poseidon stay in Cabin Three. "Percy," he said. "If you need anything, you know where to find us."

Annabeth nodded and got to her feet as well. "Don't be afraid to knock." Thinking better of it, she added, "Well, be a little afraid. I don't think all the Athena campers have warmed up to you just yet."

I chuckled. "I'll keep that in mind. Good night, guys. And... thank you."

With that, the three of us went our separate ways for the first time since our quest started weeks ago. Well, second time, I supposed. As I made my way up the steps to Cabin Three, the smell of sea salt growing stronger, I realized there was something I forgot to do. I rushed back down the stairs and dashed all the way to the arts and crafts building. As I expected, there was no one there, and to my luck there were still plenty of supplies left out, probably from the Ares kids. I helped myself to some of them and went to work.

A few hours later, I had myself a shroud for my mother. It was painted blue, with white streaks representing the crests of ocean waves spanning it. Different types of candies that she'd bring home from her work dotted the cloth, and in the center was a golden trident, just as I had seen my father holding. I had debated for a while whether to include him in the design since he wasn't exactly ever there for us, but I knew that my mom had loved him and that he meant a lot to her. In the end, I decided to keep it.

I wasn't an artist by any means, but I was pretty happy with how it turned out.

I then grabbed some rope from the supply bin and foraged around the edge of the woods for some fallen branches. Lashing them together, I soon had a makeshift raft. I tested the sturdiness. It would do.

My next stop was the stables, where I grabbed a bundle of hay that I would use to fill the shroud and give it form. The pegasi were retired for the night, but I could hear one of them mumbling in its sleep.

_Golden apples...,_ it moaned. _Mane brushes..._

I thought about how strange my life had become as I went to get the last thing I needed. Back in the arts and crafts building once more, I rummaged around awhile until I found a clay pot. Jogging back to the campfire, I dug up some coals that were still hot under the ash. I carefully transferred them to the pot and then made my way down to the beach with the completed product.

Purple light was beginning to paint the horizon when I reached the edge of the water. I kicked off my shoes and let the wind whip through my hair, wading out until the water reached my knees. Deadbeat dad or no, I still couldn't put into words how much I enjoyed being near his domain. The waves lapped at my feet as if they were reaching out for me. The sea itself felt like it was mourning. After a moment, I placed the raft down in the water, the shroud already tied to it. I opened up the clay pot and allowed the coals to fall into the hay underneath.

Without me even willing it, the ocean seemed to calm, and a gentle current began to carry it out to sea. The waves parted around the raft and allowed it to pass through. My vision blurred, and I wiped away at my eyes.

"Goodbye, Mom," I whispered. The shroud went up in flames, its orange halo melding into the colors of dawn on the sea behind it. "I love you."

* * *

**This was mainly a filler chapter to get the other characters up to speed and allow Percy to say goodbye. The story will start to branch out from canon in one or two chapters. Again, sorry for the slow start, but I want to make sure Percy's change of heart is done right.**


	3. I Go Jogging With A Pig

I stood before the pit, its vastness stretching out into the darkness. The only illumination in the area came from behind me, where the mouth of the cave opened up into the Underworld. I should've been afraid, I should've been panicking. What was I doing here? How did I even get back to this place? But strangely enough, I felt relaxed. Like I was meant to be there. From the depths of the pit, I could hear the echoes of rocks shifting and scraping, as if some great being was trying to claw its way out.

The menacing presence I felt on the beach with Ares washed over me, but I did not flinch. The cave seemed to draw breath. "_Now, Perseus Jackson, you see how the gods reward those who are loyal to them. With lies, murder, rejection, and promises of death. They use you when it befits them, and discard you as soon as you've served your purpose. Such tyranny must not go unpunished. I think the gods have gotten too comfortable in their thrones. What say you?_"

My feet balanced precariously at the edge of the chasm, and I peered down into darkness. I became uncertain. I had a feeling I was supposed to make a decision, but what that decision meant, I did not know. Just as my mind was beginning to tear itself in two, I felt icy hands grasp my shoulders and shake. I lost my balance, and—

I awoke to the sound of waves crashing arounFd me, which was normal for Cabin Three. Except this time, someone was there with me, yanking my shoulders around like I was the newest model Shake-Weight.

"—ercy. You alright, man? Percy!"

I opened my eyes and found myself momentarily blinded by sunlight. I brought up a hand to shield my eyes and realized that I wasn't in my cabin at all, but rather still on the beach. I blinked groggily, my hands grabbing fistfuls of sand as I sat up. The sun was hovering just over the horizon now. I must have passed out on the beach shortly after I burned the shroud, and by the looks of it, I only had time for a power nap.

Standing over me with a look of concern was Luke. He was shirtless and drenched in sweat, chest heaving like he'd just sprinted a lap. Footsteps in the sand behind him indicated he came from the woods.

"Oh, hey Luke," I said, shaking the sand out of my hair. "Out for a jog?"

Seeing I was awake, he stood unsurely. "Yeah, I usually pass by the beach in the mornings. Didn't expect to find you here, though." He stuck out a hand and helped me up. "Party too hard last night?"

I'd have probably laughed if I hadn't been so bone-tired. "Nah, I wish," I replied. "Actually, I was up all night making a shroud."

Luke arched a brow. "Didn't like the one Ares cabin made for you?"

"Nah, that was perfect." I shook my head and turned to gaze out into the ocean, looking for any remnants of the raft, but it seemed to be either all burned up or lost at sea. "This one wasn't for me, actually. It was for my mom. I... wasn't able to save her in time."

Luke looked genuinely at a loss for words. "I'm sorry," he said, stunned. "I didn't know." In that moment, I felt closer to him than I ever had since coming to Camp Half-Blood. I wondered if that was because we shared a commonality: we'd both lost someone because of the gods. As he stared out into the ocean and watched the sun rise higher in the sky, I knew he must have been thinking about Thalia.

His scar rippled, and I could see the bitterness return to his features. "It was Hades, wasn't it?"

The intensity of his gaze made me hesitant to reply, and I found that I couldn't meet his eyes. Something about my body language must have given it away, though, because Luke just said, "Figures."

After a moment, he sighed heavily. "Want to join me for a run?" he asked.

The abruptness of the question took me aback, but I was glad for the change in subject. Luke really creeped me out when he got like that. I was going to say no at first. I wasn't really sure if my body would hold up just walking back to my cabin, let alone keep up with one of the fastest sprinters in camp. But I was kind of glad Luke was being so friendly with me. When I'd gotten back to camp yesterday, he'd seemed weirdly distant, almost like he was avoiding me. Now, it felt like he was trying to open up. It was clear that he didn't see me as the same newbie kid who he had to take care of in the Hermes cabin. It felt like I'd earned his respect.

"Sure thing," I said, taking a side glance at the sea. "But let me re-energize first."

After a quick dip in the water, the tiredness drained from my bones and I suddenly felt like I could run a marathon. I tried to hold onto that feeling for as long as possible as I fell in behind Luke. We jogged back the way he had seemingly come, following his footsteps into the woods. Luke said he had a few places where he liked to jog, but the woods was by far his favorite. Apparently, avoiding getting gored by monsters was a pretty good motivator.

Case in point, a few minutes along our route, we accidentally startled a massive hog who had been giving himself a good backrub against a pine tree. I challenge you to maintain a leisurely jog while a pig the size of a sedan is squealing at your heels. I could've killed it easily with Riptide, but Luke said that would ruin the fun. It eventually stopped tailing us after I gave it a surprise bath in the creek. I was a little disappointed we weren't timing ourselves, because I was pretty sure I'd just set a new PR for fastest mile.

The hog stomped around and snorted and shook its tusks at us from the other side of the creek, but gave up after a while and left. Luke and I decided that was a good time to cool off and take a break. I kneeled down at the edge of the creek, cupping water into my hands and taking a drink.

Luke wrinkled his face. "Gross," he said. "That water is filled with monster piss."

I laughed. "Nah, I filtered it." An evil thought crossed my mind. "Want some?" I asked. Before he could respond, Luke was drenched head to toe, clothes dripping and hair in his face, courtesy of yours truly. He gaped at me, mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water, before his features took on a mischievous glint.

"You're dead, Jackson!" he yelled, rushing forward to football tackle me into the creek. We sloshed around in the water for a bit, trying to best each other in a wrestling match. Luke was 7 years older and had at least 60 pounds on me, but the water was giving me so much strength that I was making it difficult for him to pin me. After a while, my tiredness started to catch up with me, and Luke made me gargle monster-piss water until I tapped out.

Laughing like idiots, we pulled ourselves up onto the bank. The water in my clothes and hair instantly evaporated, but I left Luke out to dry (literally) on his own as a show that he didn't win completely. We sat there for a while, watching the sunlight move through the trees and listening to the birds and weird sounds from the monsters.

"Were you close with your mom?" Luke asked, picking up a flat rock and skipping it across the creek.

I nodded. "You could say that. I spent most of my time away from her at boarding schools, so monsters wouldn't bother us. She could see through the Mist, so she always knew the best ways to protect me from them." Luke nodded in understanding. "But the moments that I got to come home and see her were some of the best times of the year. She never really cared that I got kicked out of every school I attended or failed all my classes. She was always just glad to see me. She'd bring home bags of candy from the shop she worked at and take me on trips to the beach." A small grin wormed its way onto my face as I recalled fond memories of her. My eyes began to grow misty, but no tears fell. I wondered if I was all cried out. "I miss her already."

Luke was staring into the water, eyes hard. He had picked up another rock, but he didn't throw this one immediately. His hand formed into a fist around it. "You're lucky," he said, frowning. "My relationship with my mom wasn't so great. She was a clear-sighted mortal just like yours was. She could see everything about the Greek world, a little too well. At some point, she got it in her head that she wanted to become the next Oracle."

My jaw dropped, stunned. "You mean that—up in the attic—"

Luke shook his head. "No, that's not her. My mom's still alive, as far as I know. The current Oracle has been dead a long time, at least 50 years before my mom tried to take on the role. I was a baby when it happened. I don't know what happened when she went in there, but she wasn't normal after that. She had fits where her eyes would turn green, fog billowing from her mouth, and she would speak in broken prophecies. My earliest memories of her pretty much consist of me hiding in a closet, praying to my dad for help, while she went on a tirade about some dark, twisted fate I was going to meet. Only, my dad never answered my prayers, and eventually I couldn't take it anymore. I ran away when I was 14."

I shuddered at Luke's story. I knew it would have been terrifying if my mom had ever done that, but of course my stupid brain could only think about how Gabe would react if my mom's eyes suddenly turned green and she predicted he'd lose at poker that night.

"Then you found Annabeth?" I asked, hoping he would continue his story. Annabeth had talked briefly about their time on the run before they came to camp, and I wanted to know more.

"No, first I met Thalia." I could see his face liven up a bit, the ghost of a smile returning to his lips. "Man, she could really fight. Being a daughter of Zeus, she attracted twice as many monsters as I ever did, but she handled herself just fine. I know she saved my ass dozens of times. We kicked around for a while, following some goat around until—"

"Goat?" I asked, perplexed. "Like a satyr?"

Luke chuckled. "No, I mean an actual goat. Amaltheia, I think was its name. It was a sign of Zeus. Thalia had been following it, and it led her straight to me. Then we followed it, and it led us to Annabeth and a gift for Thalia, a shield modeled after Zeus's Aegis."

"Woah, you mean, like, the one with Medusa's head imprinted on it?" I suddenly wished I hadn't been so hasty to package up and send off my spoils of war from the fight with Medusa. If I had kept that, I bet I could've paid one of the Haephestus kids to make a new mold of that design using the real thing. I could've had my own Aegis.

"That's the one. For a year after that, the three of us travelled all up and down the east coast, fighting monsters and building safe houses. Until Grover found us." His reminiscent smile curled downwards, and he lobbed the rock that was curled in his fingers forwards where it crashed into the creek with a _thunk!_ "That's where everything went wrong. Hades found out about Thalia, and let all his worst monsters out of the Underworld to hunt her down." Luke paused now. He seemed to be having trouble continuing. "I... I think you know the rest."

I nodded. Annabeth had told me how Thalia sacrificed herself to hold back the horde of monsters, allowing her and Luke to get to safety. I empathized with Luke. My mom had basically done the same thing for me and Grover with the Minotaur. Except I had been able to get my revenge on the Minotaur instantly. Luke had to live with the survivor's guilt, with a reminder of his loss sitting on top of Half-Blood Hill for him to see everyday.

"It wasn't your fault," I told him.

Luke's eyebrows scrunched up again, his scar frowning at me. "I know!" he snapped. He caught himself immediately, and his voice softened a degree. "I know. Believe me, Chiron drilled that into my head for weeks after her death. I came to accept that there was nothing I could do. Nothing except blame the gods."

It didn't sound to me like he had fully accepted what happened. But I really couldn't blame him. The guy had been forced to grow up with a mother who'd been possessed by a mummy, spouting prophecies of a lousy fate for him, and when he finally escaped it all and found something good in his life, a friend, she was taken away from him. And now, after living in Cabin Twelve all these years and interacting with kids whose parents never claimed them, well... I guess it was enough to make anyone bitter.

"It's not fair, what happened to them," I said, hugging my knees to me chest. "Thalia and my mom, I mean. When I talked to my father after the quest, he _defended_ Hades, made it sound like her death was my fault." I sighed. Luke was watching me out of the corner of his eye, concerned. "I know it wasn't," I told him quickly. "But still... I wish there was something we could do. Make the gods admit to their wrongdoings and hold them accountable for what they've done."

The forest grew silent as I waited for Luke to say something. After a moment, I glanced to my side and saw surprise written on his face. His features ran through a gamut of emotions so fast that I didn't have a clue as to what he was thinking. He looked like he wanted to tell me something, but at that moment I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Luke felt it, too. A chorus of growls ripped through the underbrush. We'd been so deep in conversation that we'd forgotten we were sitting in a forest stocked with monsters.

"Time to go!" Luke yelled, shooting up and taking off through the brush like a startled gazelle.

Cursing, I stood up and hobbled after him. "Hey, wait for me!"

* * *

In case you were wondering, yes, I made it out of the woods alive, no thanks to Luke. Some of the campers were just starting to rise, bed-heads and half-lidded eyes heading towards the bathrooms. For me, however, it was bedtime. My fatigue over the last 10 days had caught up with me, and I ended up sleeping throughout the entire day. Mr. D slapped me with latrine duty for the rest of that week for shirking my daily camp responsibilities.

The following weeks were a blur of training, sparring with Luke, and just falling back into a general routine. I hung out with Grover and Annabeth when I could, and made plenty of new friends from other cabins. It turns out successfully completing a quest turns you into a kind of celebrity. I met a boy named Beckendof from the Hephaestus cabin who couldn't believe we survived one of his father's traps, and I practiced sword fighting with a guy named Ethan who had apparently bunked with me in the Hermes cabin during my short stint there. He was pretty skilled, but not as good as Luke.

The 4th of July came around, and Beckondorf told me about how the Hephaestus cabin puts on a big show every year, with so many fireworks launched per minute that it looks like an animation in the sky.

As Annabeth and I were laying out the picnic blanket, Grover approached us to tell us goodbye. I tried to feel glad for him. After all, it wasn't every day that you got permission to search for the great god Pan. But Grover was my oldest friend, despite only knowing him for less than a year, and I was going to miss him.

Annabeth fussed over him, making sure he had enough tin cans and that his fake feet were on securely. Grover looked different. He was starting to grow a wispy beard, and his horns had begun to become visible above his hairline.

He wouldn't tell us where he was going to search first. Apparently, it was some big satyr secret. I wished him luck. It was hard not to worry about him. After all, no searcher had ever come back from their journeys in over 2000 years. But I had faith. Grover had found me and Thalia, the only two children of the Big Three to exist over the past 60 years. If anyone was gonna find Pan, it was him.

Annabeth and I watched the fireworks in stunned silence. They were pretty spectacular. Images of Hercules slaying the Nemean Lion, Artemis chasing the boar, and Washington crossing the Delaware danced across the sky. As I watched the grand finale light up the valley, I felt my mind start to wander. There had been a burning question that I wanted to ask Annabeth for a while, but I never really found the right time to ask it, and I was afraid of how she'd respond. Deciding that we were far enough away to be out of earshot of everyone else, I went ahead and fired away.

"Hey Annabeth? Can I ask you something personal?"

She averted her attention from the explosions in the sky and looked at me warily. It seemed there were still topics she was guarded about. "I guess that depends."

I pursed my lips, trying to figure out how to ask my question. "Do you ever resent the gods for what they did to Thalia?"

She regarded me carefully for a moment, and then seemed to become lost in thought. She chewed on her words for a little, then: "The gods in general? No, I don't resent them. Hades is the one who was responsible. He's the one that sent the monsters after her, and he sent them after you too."

"That's true," I replied. "But in my case, Hades wasn't the only god to attack me. Remember the Greyhound bus? If we hadn't gotten out of it in time, Zeus would have fried us with that thunderbolt."

Annabeth frowned. "Maybe he was aiming for the Furies? The king of the gods had no reason to attack us there."

"It'd have to be a pretty big coincidence then, considering that was the second time it happened to me that week. When my mom was driving me and Grover to camp, lightning blew our car right off the road. It's the only reason the Minotaur caught up with us." Annabeth's frown deepened. Apparently she hadn't been privy to that knowledge.

I continued. "There was also Ares. He tricked us into falling for that trap and then fought me on the beach. And then the awful things my father said to me… I just can't help but get the feeling that all the gods are like that."

Annabeth looked at the sky fearfully, and I don't know why, but that really pissed me off. Why couldn't we speak ill of the gods without worrying about getting smote? It was the exact opposite of what their 'Western Civilization' was supposed to be about. Was there no such concept as free speech on Olympus?

"It's dangerous to talk like that," Annabeth reminded me, though I got the sense she knew I didn't care.

"But do you see my point though?"

"Yes, I see where you're coming from," she admitted grudgingly. "It wasn't fair what they did to you or your mom, but Percy, _they're our parents_—"

"Exactly!" I said, a little louder than I meant to. I noticed other campers look our way, but most of them went back to staring at the sky or chatting with their friends pretty quickly. I lowered my voice to a hushed tone just in case. "They're our parents, but they don't act like it. Chiron, Grover, Luke, _you_. You're all more of a family to me than they are."

Through the bright flashes of Apollo slaying the Python in the sky, I could see the color rising to Annabeth's cheeks. "What are you trying to say?" she asked, twirling a finger through her hair.

I looked down at my hands, curling them into fists and relaxing them. "I… I don't know. I just feel so _used._ I don't like how the gods treat us as pawns."

Annabeth sighed, rubbing at her temples. "You're starting to sound like Luke," she said. "He hasn't been the same ever since he got back from his quest a couple years ago. He's been more… distant. And angry." Annabeth leaned back on her hands, her eyes reflecting the fireworks in the sky. She smiled. "Lately, though… I've been seeing him around a lot more often. He seems happier, almost like his old self."

July passed. I made it to the top of the climbing wall for the first time without getting singed by lava. I quickly gained a reputation as the second best swordsman at camp, right after Luke. My archery skills failed to improve, and Chiron looked like he was just about ready to give up on me. Cabins Three, Six, and Twelve formed an unstoppable capture the flag alliance that went on to win the trifecta.

At the end of the summer, the year's beads were given out. I had to hide my blush from the rest of the campers as Luke handed me mine. It was black, with a golden trident on one side.

"The choice among the counselors was unanimous!" Luke announced. "This bead commemorates the first son of the Sea God at this camp and the quest he undertook to the darkest parts of the Underworld to stop a war!"

Cheers erupted, and Luke beamed at me. Annabeth was steered to the front of the crowd by the other Athena kids to share in the applause.

That summer, despite the loss and hardship I endured, was the best of my life. For the first time, I had people who cared about me and thought I'd done something right. Several of the younger campers even looked up to me for my success on my quest, and I wasn't completely oblivious to the looks Silena Beauregard, the counselor of the Aphrodite cabin, sent my way whenever I passed Cabin Nine. I felt wanted for a change. But it also saddened me, because soon they'd all be leaving for the year, and I'd be stuck at camp with only Clarisse for company, assuming Annabeth's dad accepted her back (which I had no doubt he would).

The next morning, I had a letter on my doorstep from Mr. D. Giving it a once-over, I promptly tore it up and threw it in the trash. The Big House wanted to know if I'd be staying year-round. Well, the choice for me was obvious. I would have rather taken my chances in the Fields of Punishment than live with Gabe year round, not that he'd ever even allow me to live with him.

After taking a steamy shower, I got dressed and trudged down to the Big House where I informed Chiron of such. He smiled at me sadly. I don't think I ever told him what happened to my mom, but I was sure he must have been able to glean it from Annabeth or Grover. He told me not to worry about my education; he offered plenty of courses at camp for those who stayed year round.

I blinked. School had honestly been the last thing on my mind at that moment, but I thanked him anyways. Annabeth joined us at the Big House after a while, bags packed and attention focused on the hill. She seemed nervous. Her parents were coming to pick her up, she told us.

I was happy for her, I really was, and I tried my best to show it. But when she looked at me, I could tell she was having second thoughts. I remembered the conversation around the dying campfire we had the night we got back from the quest, and how Annabeth was worried that she'd put her family in danger if she went back to them. I wanted to reassure her, tell her she was making the right choice, but honestly, after what happened to my mom, how could I?

Instead, I just wished her luck.

"I'll be sure to IM you throughout the year," she said. "And when I get back, you'd better be able to beat Clarisse in a fight."

I flashed her a grin, accepting her challenge. Her family was up on the hill now. A middle-aged couple stood close together, and two kids were playing on the branches of Thalia's tree. Annabeth grabbed her things and started making her way up towards them.

"And keep practicing your Ancient Greek!" she called over her shoulder.

I smiled. "_Braccas meas vescimini!_"

Annabeth laughed, a melodious sound that cheered me up. "Keep your eyes open, Seaweed Brain!" she called, waving goodbye.

"You too, Wise Girl!"

I watched her trudge up the hill towards her family, and when she got there, she dropped everything as her dad embraced her. Then they disappeared over the hill, and the camp felt just a little lonelier.

"Erm… '_Eat my pants_'?" Chiron asked.

"It's a long story."


	4. The Prophecy is Fulfilled

Here's the thing about prophecies. They often have double meanings. If the Oracle told me that I was going to "cut the cheese", I wouldn't really know if it meant that in the figurative sense or if I'd really be slicing up wheels of cheddar with Riptide. Ok, weird example, but the point is you can never be 100% sure if a line in the prophecy has come to pass.

As I walked away from the Big House, I glanced up at the attic window, where I knew that mummy was just laying there amongst all the knick knacks and spoils of war, rotting away. Shivers ran up my spine as I remembered how it sat up, green smoke billowing out of its mouth, and spoke to me.

'_You will go west and face the god who has turned.'_

Been there, done that. Although, the god in question turned out not to be Hades as we originally thought, but Ares, the god of war.

'_You will find what was stolen and see it safely returned.'_

Check, although it would have made more sense to say "them" instead of "it". On top of Zeus's bolt, we also discovered Hades' helm was missing as well. In the end, we returned both to their rightful owners.

'_You will be betrayed by one that calls you a friend,'_

This line still bothered me. Even though I never liked the guy, Ares tried to act like he was my friend, offering us transportation and supplies. Still, I was uneasy about letting this one go. And seriously, how many friends did I even have? Grover? Annabeth? Luke? One of them went away on a quest of his own, another went home for the year, and the other would be going off to college soon, I presumed. How exactly would any of them betray me?

'_And you will fail to save what matters most in the end.'_

I dreamt of her sometimes. I'd see my mom's kind smile, remember her warm greetings when I came home, and blue cakes she'd bake for my birthdays. But sometimes I would also see her in the grasp of the Minotaur, or her beautiful face morphed in pain as she was cooked alive. On more than one occasion, I dreamt of giving her my pearl and saving her instead of myself. Would Hades have killed me if I had stayed behind? I didn't think so, but his Furies might have made me wish I were dead.

And every time I failed to save her in my dreams, I would hear that menacing voice urging me to give the gods a taste of their own medicine. He said that if I helped him rise, he would help me take revenge. I was never able to speak in the dreams, but if I could, I would have told him off, let him know that he was every bit as responsible for her death as the gods were.

The corners of my mouth grew heavy. It'd been months since I lost her, but the hole that opened in my chest when I heard she was dead remained. Some days it wasn't so bad, but on days like today when everyone was heading home to be with their families, I found I couldn't think. My mind was scattered, thoughts drifting from how much I missed her to how angry I was at the gods for causing her death over what amounted to a misunderstanding.

So I did what I always do when I don't want to use my brain. Beat the stuffing out of some dummies at the arena.

Luke was already there when I walked through the archway. He didn't see me enter, so I decided to watch him for a bit. He was absolutely going to town on the dummies, every slash of his sword sending straw and potato sack fabric to the ground. I'd sparred with him plenty of times, but taking a step back and observing his attacks reminded me just how _good_ Luke was at sword fighting. Not a single movement was wasted as he effortlessly demolished each one. Finally, the last dummy's head went crashing into the dirt, along with any plans I had for destressing.

"You sure showed them who's boss," I called to him.

Luke spun around, a bead of sweat dripping down his forehead. He saw me and smiled. "Percy," he greeted. "Hey, I'm glad you're here. I was just about to come looking for you. I wanted to ask you what your plans are for the rest of the year."

"Funny, I wanted to ask you the same thing," I responded. "You going off to college?"

Luke laughed as if I'd made a funny joke. I guess it _was _kind of hard to picture him trying to crack open a textbook to study. "No, I'm not really the scholarly type like Annabeth," he said. He grabbed a water bottle off the floor and took a swig. "I actually managed to snag a job as a crew member on a cruise ship."

My jaw dropped. "You're kidding," I said. That was, like, my dream job. Cruising around on the open ocean 24/7, visiting all sorts of tropical places, and getting _paid_ to do it? Sign me up! "Would they hire a 12 year old?" I asked, half jokingly.

Luke looked thoughtful for a moment. "You know, I think they could find a job for you. But don't you think you should get a little more hero training in before you try to stick it out in the real world?"

"Why?" I asked. "You're the best swordsman in the camp. I'd have you to teach me."

"I suppose that's true," he said pensively. "Tell you what, I'll put in a good word for you with the boss and see what I can do."

He drained the water bottle in a few thirsty swigs, sheathing his sword and gathering up his belongings. It was only then that I noticed the discoloration on Luke's blade. It was double-edged, one side a gleaming bronze, and the other a dull gray.

"New toy?" I asked.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to show you." He redrew it halfway out of its sheath. "One side is celestial bronze, the other tempered steel. Works on monsters and mortals both. It's called Backbiter."

"Wow," I said. I remembered what Chiron told me before my quest started, that I should never, ever hurt mortals. "I didn't know they could make weapons like that."

"_They_ probably can't. This sword is one of a kind," he said, letting it slide back down into the scabbard. He gave me a tiny smile. "Anyways, I'm probably going to be heading out today. Why don't we go down to the forest one last time and poke around for something to fight?"

From his bag, Luke produced a six pack of Coke, and my mouth immediately started to water. I hadn't gotten the opportunity to vent my frustrations on the dummies, and sugar and caffeine were my Achilles heel, so to speak, so of course I agreed to go.

We kicked around in the woods for an hour or so but didn't run into any monsters. It was so hot outside, I figured any monster with a shred of common sense would be holed up in their nice cool caves. Luke and I found a shady spot near the creek where we'd lost the boar a couple months back. We took a seat at the side of the stream, drank our Cokes, and watched the sunlight beaming through the trees.

After a while, Luke asked, "You miss being on a quest?"

"With monsters attacking us every three feet? You kidding?"

Luke raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I miss it," I admitted. "You?"

Apparently that was the wrong question to ask. A shadow passed over Luke's face, making his scar ripple. I was used to hearing from the girls how good-looking Luke was, but at that moment, he looked weary, and angry, and not at all handsome. His blonde hair looked gray in the sunlight. His scar looked deeper. I could imagine him as an old man.

"I've lived at camp year-round ever since Thalia died. For years, I trained and trained and trained, and I never got to go to school or be a normal teenager. Then, a couple years ago, the gods finally bestowed me with a quest, and when I got back it was like, 'Ok, ride's over, have a nice life.'"

He crumpled up his Coke can and threw it in the creek, which really shocked me. One of the first things we're taught at camp is not to litter. The naiads and dryads will get even with you. They'll sneak into your cabin in the middle of the night and you'll wake up covered in worms and centipedes.

Luke sighed. "I need to level with you, Percy. I'm the one who stole the master bolt."

My eyes went wide as plates. There was silence, save for the babbling of the creek, as I tried several times to form a response. He had to be joking, right? "You—"

"Do you want to know what my quest was two years ago? I had to steal a Golden Apple from the Garden of the Hesperides. You know, like Hercules did millenia ago. Now where's the glory in repeating a quest someone else has already done? I failed. The dragon gave me this scar, and when I got back, all I got was pity. Well, the hell with laurel wreaths. The titan lord spoke to me in my dreams, and convinced me to steal something worthwhile, something nobody's ever stolen before."

My head was spinning. Luke was the thief. It hit me at that moment. _You will be betrayed by one that calls you a friend_.

Blood roared in my ears, and the next thing I knew, Luke was pinned under me, the water of the creek rushing past us. I was so mad I could barely see. He struggled and fought, but I'd gotten stronger since the last time we'd wrestled like this. How easy it would've been to just force his head under the water and hold it there.

"Percy—" Luke gasped, gripping at my arms.

"It was you," I spat. "You're the one who started this whole mess. You pretended to be my friend, and you lied. Because of you, Zeus tried to have me killed, Hades sent his worst monsters after me, and my mom is dead!"

Beneath me, Luke's struggling began to lessen. He looked up at me, shocked. Without thinking, I pulled my fist back and struck him across the jaw. Over the summer, I'd been shredded by a hellhound, whipped by a Fury, and poisoned by the Chimera, but _nothing_ hurt worse than the betrayal I felt at that moment. Luke had been one of my only friends, maybe even my best friend. We shared a special connection that few others at camp possessed, and now I was beginning to realize it was fake. It hurt maybe just as much as when I was told my mom was gone.

"I didn't know it'd be you," Luke said sincerely. He was no longer trying to force me off of him. His hands relaxed at his sides, and he strained his neck to keep his face above the water. Blood leaked out of the corner of his mouth and disappeared into the stream. Pained eyes bored into mine. "We didn't even know each other at the time that I stole the bolt. It was the gods who passed the blame onto you. The titan lord is powerful, but even he can't see the future. Only the Fates can do that. I'm sorry that this all ended up on your shoulders."

Despite still being in the water, I could feel my strength beginning to leave me. The blind rage that had overtaken me moments ago faded, and I was left with a hollow pit in my stomach. I sat back in the water. My face was wet, I realized, and it wasn't from the stream. In front of me, Luke sat up slowly so that we were at eye level, except I couldn't bring myself to meet his gaze.

"And I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner," he continued. "I wanted to, but… I guess I was afraid you'd hate me. Because, Percy, the time we spent together this summer—that was real. All of it. We're…" He trailed off, his face uncertain as he seemed to search for the right word. Finally, he said, "We're family, and I care about you."

I looked up at him, stunned, because his voice had sounded so _honest_. Having lived in the Hermes cabin for a short while, I had gotten a little better at telling when someone was trying to play a trick on me, and at that moment I knew with certainty that Luke was telling the truth.

With a sad smile, he stood up and approached me. He extended a hand, and after a moment of hesitation, I took it. He pulled me straight into a hug. His shirt was soaking wet. For a while, we stood there, the creek rushing past our feet. I could feel the pain of betrayal starting to wash away with it, but it didn't fade completely. It ran deep, and I knew it would take a long time before it was completely cleansed, and even longer before I forgave him. But it was a start.

Luke's words echoed in my head. _Family_, he had said. For the first time, I felt like I had a big brother. Maybe Ares had been right. Family fights were the best kind. Because once they were over, you ended up closer for it.

After a while, Luke pulled away. He brushed past me and walked back up onto the bank of the creek. When he got there, he stopped.

"I take it by now you've figured out what my job on the cruise ship really is. Like I said, I'm sure we could use an extra hand. If you're still interested, that is. My boss doesn't punish those who are loyal to him. He rewards them."

My eyes widened, because I knew exactly what he was asking. Luke wanted me to join him in working for Kronos. The titan lord had been trying to get me to enlist for months now, his voice invading my dreams and beckoning me to join him in the pit. I had always brushed him off because I thought he was mostly to blame for what happened this summer, but Luke made me realize something. I was far angrier at the gods than I was at Kronos.

When I thought about it, Kronos hadn't actually done me any harm. It was the gods that rejected, threatened, and attacked me all summer, and it was the gods who took my mom from me.

_A way to hold the gods accountable._ That's what I had wanted, wasn't it? But still. To overthrow the Olympians… Was that the right answer? And was such a thing even possible? I'd be helping to start a war even larger than the one I just prevented, and there was no telling who would get caught up in the mix.

Annabeth… I knew at that moment that she'd never join Luke. She was far too proud of her mother to ever oppose the gods. Wouldn't I be putting her and everyone else at camp in danger by helping Kronos?

And Chiron. He'd been nothing but a great teacher to me. I hated to disappoint him. It had always tore me up inside seeing his face whenever I got a bad grade in his class, or missed a target entirely in archery, so how would I ever be able to look him in the eyes again after betraying him like this? And even if we succeeded in dethroning the gods, what would happen to him? They had been the ones who granted him immortality, so what would become of him if they lost their power?

Still though, I knew something had to be done. If the gods were left unchecked, the pain and suffering they caused on a regular basis would only continue. Luke was doing everything he could to take a stand against them, and I couldn't let him do it alone. Releasing a breath I didn't know I was holding, I knew what I wanted to do.

"Decide quickly, Percy. The tree nymphs are listening, and it's only a matter of time before they report back to Mr. D about what they've heard."

I didn't need to be told twice. "I'll go with you," I told him, a newfound determination welling up within me. "Let's make the gods pay."

Luke grinned at me, and for the first time in, well, as long as I knew him, he looked happy. His scar didn't stand out so much, and his elvish features softened considerably. Even with his split lip, his smile was contagious.

"I was hoping you'd say that," he said. He drew his sword, Backbiter, and slashed it down in a vertical arc. Where the tip cut through the air, a shimmering rift of black and red energy appeared. A portal, I realized. How did he do that? I moved towards it, staring in awe.

"Um, Percy? Would you mind…?" Luke asked, holding out the sleeve of his drenched shirt.

"Oh, yeah."

I grabbed it, and within a second Luke's clothes were completely dry.

"Thanks," he said.

"Don't mention it."

With that, Luke stepped forward and through the portal where he disappeared with a flash. I was right behind him, tracing his footsteps and moving through the gate of energy—

—only to trip and fall right into the creek. After getting over my initial surprise, I turned to look at where the swirling mass had just been. All I saw was sunlight filtering through the trees. Confusion overtook me. Had Luke closed the portal? Did something go wrong? Or had this all been some kind of twisted trick?

Just when my panic was threatening to spill out, another portal appeared. Luke's disembodied head poked its way through the darkness.

"Sorry," he said, not sounding sorry at all. "Guess I should've mentioned that only one of us can use the portals at a time. Here, use this one."

I watched his face disappear again. Shaking my head, I got up from the creek and made a mad dash for the new portal. I moved through all at once, not wanting to find out what happens when it closes while I'm still in it.

And that's how I found myself on a cruise ship in the middle of the Atlantic.

* * *

**And there we go. Luke saw the bitterness in Percy and offered for him to join Kronos rather than try to kill him. This is where the story will really start to branch out from canon.**


	5. I Meet the Boss

When Luke had revealed he was working for Kronos and started talking about his job on the cruise ship again, I thought he was speaking figuratively, like it was a code or something to keep the true nature of his role hidden. I imagined that when we stepped out of the portal, we'd emerge in some kind of underground secret lair, where we'd be greeted by a guy wearing a nice suit with a thick Russian accent. Or maybe a cave filled with a team of battle-hardened freedom fighters with dirty faces, wearing bandanas and war paint, all sitting around waiting for their next mission.

But no. It actually was a cruise ship, and as far as I could tell, it was just about deserted save for a few ghostly images of tourists. They shimmered about on the deck, going about their respective businesses, but they behaved strangely. I saw a pair of them walk straight through each other, their images flickering for a moment before continuing on their way as if nothing unusual had happened. Another tourist was doing laps in the pool, but her body was stuck halfway out of the water in a T-pose as she moved, something I found extremely disconcerting. A crew member wearing a crisp white uniform was wrapped up in a friendly conversation with a tourist, but they were facing away from each other. The tourist told a joke and pointed to the beer in his hand. The staff member broke out in laughter, his eyes fixed on something in front of him that wasn't there.

"Welcome aboard, passenger," Luke said in his best announcer voice, stretching his arms out in a grandiose display. "This is your captain, Luke Castellan, speaking. Thank you for joining us on this luxury tropical adventure, and do try to ignore the virtual tourists. They're simply meant to show passing vessels that we are not, in fact, a ghost ship, but clearly there are some glitches that Hecate needs to patch. Please enjoy your stay here on the _Princess Andromeda_."

I gaped at him as a passing apparition opened his mouth and poured juice on his shirt. "Did you just say 'Hecate'?" I asked. "As in the goddess of magic?"

Luke had a smug grin on his face. "That's the one. She fought for the gods in the first Titan war, so a lot of people forget she's really a titaness, but you'd be surprised just how many minor gods the Olympians have managed to offend over the millennia. There are plenty who would love to take revenge and join our cause."

"Ok, wait a second. Back up," I said, already feeling overwhelmed. "How did you even _get _a cruise ship?"

"We have several wealthy sponsors."

"Like _who?_"

"Ever hear of King Midas?"

"Oh."

"For now, this is the base of operations for the titan king's army, and your new home."

"Home," I repeated, staring at the Olympic sized swimming pool decorated with slides and fountains, patioed refreshment bars, tanning decks, fine-dining open air restaurants, and of course, a magnificent view of the sea. Yeah, I think I could get used to the idea of staying here.

As I scanned the decks, I realized we were the only two non-holographic people in sight. Luke had mentioned an army, but I doubted a few intangible images would do much harm against the gods, even if they were T-posing.

"Uh, Luke? Where is everyone?"

"Hmm?" he asked, still admiring the view, as if it was his own little empire. "Oh, right. The army. Right now, it's just us."

My eyes bugged out. "_What?_"

That seemed like information that would have been good to know before I betrayed everyone and everything I knew. I guess with how close Kronos and Luke had gotten to causing World War III, I just figured they had a more solid foundation. They may have had the funding, but all of the money in the world wouldn't mean squat without an army. It wasn't like you could just buy a throne from a god.

"The situation isn't as bad as it sounds," Luke said quickly. "We just need more time. The titans are nearly done reforming, and once they do, they'll join our ranks as commanders and generals. The titan king himself will take longer to reform—you know, the whole getting chopped up into bits thing—but right now he's working overtime sending messages out across the country. You're not the only one who's dreaming of him. And monsters, too. They're starting to head for the coasts. We'll be picking them up on our journey to California."

"California?" I asked, unpleasant memories starting to resurface. "Why there?"

"That's where Mount Othrys is," he said, as if that should have been obvious.

I decided to just pretend I knew what that meant to save face. "Oh, right."

Luke gave me a more in-depth tour of the rest of the ship. I saw the engine room with its shiny new pipes and well-oiled machinery, the cargo hold big enough to fit two jumbo jets side-by-side, various lounges, a basketball court, and finally, the central promenade, filled with closed shops and information kiosks. We stopped at one of the restaurants for dinner.

"Table for two, please," Luke said. The host bowed and showed us to our seats.

The staff were entirely holographic, so I wasn't really sure how they were able to serve real food, but I had a lot of other things on my mind, so I didn't question it too much. The waiter had a thin mustache and wore a classy red vest and black bowtie overtop a dress shirt. He came out with a towel around his arm and served us a huge platter of steak, shrimp, and veggie rolls. He took my glass and poured water into it from his pitcher, or at least he tried to. The stream missed the glass entirely and landed on his shoe. Handing the empty glass back to me, he bowed once more, looking quite pleased with himself, and left us to eat.

"So, what do you think so far?" Luke asked, spreading butter onto his roll.

"It's amazing," I gushed. "It's even better than—"

I stopped myself. I had nearly said it was better than camp, because seriously, what was better than living for free on a luxury cruise liner? But it was missing a lot of the things I had come to love over the summer. Capture the flag, canoe races (which I always won), campfires with all my friends. I even started to miss my Greek lectures with Annabeth.

Luke seemed to sense my dissatisfaction. "Oh, hey. There's still gonna be lots of hero training," he reassured me.

I perked up a little. "Really?"

"Yeah, of course. Don't think that just because you're on a cruise that I'll let you get soft. Lord Kronos demands his servants to be in peak physical condition. I'll drill you in sword practice every day until you're as good as me, I'll run you through endurance training until you throw up, and I'll even throw some water training into your regimen."

"Water training?"

"Yeah, you got a lot of power from your dad. Whether you like him or not, you'd better learn to use it. Could save your life one day."

Luke wasn't wrong. In fact, my power over water had already bailed me out of trouble multiple times. I guess that was one thing I could thank my dad for. But I'd never actually considered training with my powers. Were they really something that could be honed? I imagined myself after years of practice, whipping rivers around like a water bender, taking out gods left and right.

"And once our army grows a little bit, it won't feel so empty around here. I mean, I know I'm great company and all," Luke said sarcastically, "but I don't think it'd be very fun hanging out with the holograms when I'm not around."

Beside us, one of the virtual patrons of the restaurant stabbed at some holographic meatloaf. "We are having a blast on the _Princess Andromeda_!" it said before shoving a piece into his mouth.

"Yeah," I agreed. "Probably not."

A spark glinted in Luke's eye. "Oh, and if you think the rest of the ship is great, wait 'til you see your room."

I immediately sat upright in my seat. "My room?"

Luke grinned. "VIP section, baby. Right next to mine."

It felt strange walking out of a restaurant without paying. "No tip?" the waiter called from somewhere behind us, his form flickering. Luke took me back through the Promenade and into the cabin area, where we took an elevator up to the top floor. When the door opened, I gasped.

We had arrived at the right time. The sun was just starting to set on the horizon, casting warm colors and long shadows throughout the hallway. We stood about 15 stories up, and through the tinted window, I could see across the ocean for miles.

Luke led me down the hall. We passed beautiful portraits of what I could only assume to be titans and titanesses, and expensive vases painted with elegant scenes such as the Garden of the Hesperides and other remnants of the so-called Golden Age. Luke stopped at the second door on the left and held a card up to it. A metallic click sounded, and he put his hand on the door handle.

"Ready?" he asked.

Without even waiting for my nod, he opened the door to reveal a stateroom that would've made the rich kids at Yancy Academy jealous. It was just as big as Smelly Gabe's apartment, which was pretty crazy considering we were on a ship. The front door led into a small raised kitchen area, complete with a microwave, stove, and a fully-stocked fridge with a bunch of my favorite sodas. Beyond the kitchen's breakfast bar was a personal home theater set-up, with a 72-inch 4K TV mounted to the wall flanked by two large speakers and a subwoofer. A small popcorn machine was plugged into the wall in the corner. I found several gaming systems in a box underneath the TV, and countless games and movies lined the cabinets.

I was completely speechless by this point, but the tour wasn't over yet. Backtracking through the kitchen and through the other door, Luke showed me my bedroom. The king-size bed was so large that I could've fit five of me in it. It had black satin sheets, a velvety blanket, and the softest pillows I'd ever felt in my life. Beside the bed was a huge circular window like a porthole scaled up. I drew the curtains aside and took in the view of the ship, the ocean behind it looking just as magnificent as it had been when we stepped off the elevator. The dressers were empty, but Luke promised we'd get me some new stylish clothes since I had to leave all my stuff behind at camp.

Connected to the bedroom was a rather spacious bathroom, which featured a large, square shower, a toilet that looked like it was made of solid gold, a sink with a granite countertop, and my favorite part: a sauna with water jets and a bunch of bath bombs sitting on the sides.

For a solid minute, I wondered if I'd died and somehow ended up on the Isles of the Blest. This place looked exactly like what I pictured those super expensive penthouses at the tops of highrises to look like. Luke stared in amusement at my dumbfounded expression.

"So I take it you like your new room?" he asked.

I nodded dumbly, unsure if I would even be able to form words at that moment. Midas had certainly spared no expense. I was sure I'd be perfectly content living here for the rest of my life.

Luke chuckled and walked back towards the door, patting me on the shoulder as he passed by. "I'll let you get settled in, then. Those portals took a lot out of me, so I'm gonna turn in early for the night. If you need anything, I'm right next door."

I nodded once more, and Luke smiled at me. He made to close the door behind him, but stopped just before it clicked and opened it again. "Oh, and Percy? I'm really glad you decided to come with me. It—well… It's just a big relief I'm not doing this alone anymore. I appreciate it."

I hadn't even thought about how much courage it must have taken for him to be the first one to follow Kronos, to go against everyone he knew and everything he'd been taught over the last five years to do what he thought was right. I admired him for that. I knew that I wouldn't have even considered leaving camp if it hadn't been for Luke.

Finally, I found my voice. "Yeah, I'm glad I came, too," I said, returning the smile.

"We'll talk more tomorrow about what our roles will be in all this, and I'll give you and the boss an official introduction. For now though, go ahead and enjoy yourself."

"Thanks, man. Night."

The door clicked shut, leaving me alone in the bachelor pad of my dreams. I'm glad I didn't know then how my meeting with Kronos would go the next day, or I wouldn't have been able to properly relax in my 'Giant Sea Salt' bath-bombed sauna that night.

* * *

That night, sprawled out on my massively oversized bed, I had another dream. Actually, I would describe it as more of an out-of-body experience. I was in my own room, standing above my sleeping body. I noted sheepishly that Annabeth had been right: I do, in fact, drool in my sleep. The moon was centered perfectly in my porthole window, its light gleaming off of the crests of the ocean waves.

The door to the hallway was firmly locked, but I was able to phase through it with ease. Wondering what I was supposed to do now, I decided I'd take another tour of the ship to see what it looked like at night. Heading for the elevator, I hesitated at Luke's door and considered knocking, but figured my hand would just pass through the door without making any noise. Voices coming from the room across from Luke's met my ears, and from what I gathered, they were talking about me. I pressed my ear as close to the wood as possible.

One of the voices was definitely Luke's. "—can trust him, Lord Kronos. He has every reason to despise the gods."

The second voice seemed like it wasn't coming from the room, but from miles below the ship. It made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end and the wooden door I was pressed against feel cold, despite my intangible body.

"_Of his animosity towards the gods, I have no doubt. It is his willingness to oppose his demigod friends that I question. If he were faced with a choice between preserving me or that wretched camp of yours, which would he pick?"_

Luke was silent for a moment. "I believe that, given time, he will become a worthy servant to you. He has already made the hardest decision of coming here."

"_Then you vouch for him? You will be willing to accept any punishment that comes should he betray me?"_

"...Yes, my lord."

"_Very well. Tomorrow, then, I shall issue the boy a test to confirm his dedication to our cause. And you'd better hope he passes. Else, _you _will be the one to kill him._"

I wasn't sure if I could make noise in my out-of-body state, but they must have somehow heard me gasp, because the voices inside immediately hushed. I booked it back to my room, not wanting to be caught eavesdropping on the titan king. The door I'd been standing against opened just as I made it back into my room.

* * *

I'm not sure if Coca-Cola and popcorn hangovers are a real thing, but I was definitely feeling out of it the next morning. It wasn't really a headache, but more like a weight on my chest. Like nervousness, or maybe 'hesitance' was the right word.

Luke had told me the night before that I'd officially be meeting the boss today. That could only mean Kronos, the voice I heard in my dream. But how was I going to meet him if he was still in pieces, and his essence still in Tartarus? What exactly was in that room that I had stood outside of last night? Another gateway to the pit?

I really didn't want to go back there. The last time I had been, Annabeth, Grover, and I were nearly sucked in. Gods and titans alike avoided Tartarus like the plague. I didn't think us demigods would do so well down there. I'd much rather stay in my luxury stateroom.

And what exactly was this "test" that Kronos had planned for me? I got the feeling that whatever it was, I was _not_ going to like it. Kronos had mentioned that he didn't approve of how attached I was to my friends at camp. If he wanted me to do anything to harm them, he had another thing coming. Because as much as I didn't want to think about it, I loved my friends at camp far more than I hated the gods. And if they stood in the way of our mission, I didn't know if I'd be able to do anything about it.

But the part of the dream that had really shaken me to my core was that if I failed this test, Kronos would force Luke to kill me. I was torn wondering if he would actually carry out such an order. Yesterday, he said we were family. Would he really choose Kronos over me? What about Annabeth? He still loved her. I know he did. What would Luke do if it ever came down to us versus her? What would _I_ do?

The more I thought about it, the more my head began to hurt. The decision I made yesterday to go with Luke had been emotional and hasty. He'd given me no time to think it over. It was just like, "Oh yeah, I'm working with the titan king to destroy the gods and I'm leaving now. Want to come with me?" Of course I wanted to help Luke, and of course I wanted to bring justice to the gods, but was this really the way to do it? I hoped I wouldn't come to regret my decision.

I tried to clear my head with a nice cool shower. I figured if anything went wrong today, I could always jump ship and swim back to land. I'm not sure how to explain it, but somehow I was able to tell my exact location in the water. We weren't very far off the coast of New York, so I'd be able to get back to Manhattan in no time at all. Luke would find it rather difficult to track me through the water.

The issue was that I wouldn't be able to go back to camp. The trees had heard everything Luke and I discussed out in the woods, so the campers would probably know to sound an alert if they saw either of us. There probably wasn't anything I could say to dig myself out of that. Plus, I wasn't sure if I'd even be able to face Chiron and his brutal looks of disappointment.

I'd have to strike out on my own, and I wasn't sure how long I could reasonably hide from gods, titans, _and _monsters.

I found my dresser and closet to be fully stocked with clothes, which creeped me out because they weren't there when I went to bed. I threw on a pair of beige chinos and a button-up T-shirt with pineapples on it, which really wasn't my style, but apparently whoever designed my wardrobe wasn't a huge fan of graphic tees and basketball shorts.

After a nutritionally balanced breakfast of coffee and Fruit Loops, I heard a knock at the door of my stateroom, and my stomach started to do somersaults. I opened the door, and Luke stood outside, looking pale. He wore a pair of bermuda shorts and a blue polo, with sandals strapped to his feet and a pair of sunglasses hanging from his collar.

"Ready to meet the boss?" he asked, an edge to his voice.

I didn't know whether to tell him I'd overheard him last night or not, so I just nodded. Luke led me down the hall to the same door I'd visited in my dreams. It bothered me that it was so close to my own room. I wasn't sure what to expect when I walked in there, but I prepared myself for the worst.

To my surprise, the room was actually beautiful. Like mine, it was a luxury stateroom. The windows gave a fantastic view of the stern of the ship. In the center of the room were two plush couches facing each other with a Persian rug underneath. A canopied bed lay in one corner, though I wasn't sure if anyone would be using it, and in the other corner was a mahogany dining table.

The only thing off about the room was the ten foot long golden casket sitting at the fore of the room atop a velvet dais. Along its sides were depictions of Ancient Greek cities burning and heroes dying grisly deaths. I'd have probably taken the shroud the Ares cabin made for me over gruesome artwork like that. Despite the sun streaming in through the windows, the sarcophagus made the whole room feel cold.

Luke approached the casket and knelt before it. Hesitantly, I did the same.

"Lord Kronos," Luke said reverently. "Here is another willing servant. Percy Jackson has seen the true colors of the gods and has since renounced them. He seeks vengeance for the injustices they've caused and an end to their selfish ways. I bring him before you so that he may pledge himself to you."

The sarcophagus was slow to respond. I could feel a presence bearing down on me, as though it didn't really know what to make of me. After a long, tense moment, I felt the floor beneath me rumble, and that same menacing voice from my dreams reverberated from below.

"_So, little hero, you've finally seen the side of the gods I warned you about and decided to heed my advice. Very interesting… Tell me. Is what Luke says true?"_

"It is, my lord," I said, trying to keep my voice from shaking.

"_And, unable to do anything yourself, you have come to me in the hopes that my brethren and I will be able to exact justice."_

"Yes, my lord."

"_Hmm…_" the deep voice mused. "_Very well. I can be your vessel for revenge. But first, you must prove yourself to me._"

I braced myself. This must've been the test the two of them spoke of last night. My eyes nervously darted towards Luke, but his gaze remained fixed on the casket, his face hard.

"_I do not trust you, Perseus Jackson. You have done much already to delay our plans. Therefore, I lay before you a task. Complete it, and I will allow you to pledge yourself to me. I will even grant you my blessing._"

Luke looked up, surprised. I guessed they hadn't spoken of that during their nighttime chat.

"What is the task, my lord?" I asked him.

"_Bring me the head of a mortal of your choosing. You have twenty-four hours. Don't disappoint me._"


	6. I Save My Baby Brother From Bullies

"Percy. Percy! Come on, man, let's talk about this!"

Luke placed a hand on my shoulder, trying to get me to turn and face him, but I shrugged him off and continued angrily marching down the hall. "There's nothing to talk about," I said calmly. "I'm not doing it."

"But you _have_ to!" Luke said desperately. "Or—or—"

"Or what?" I demanded, spinning to face him. "You gonna kill me?"

Luke winced, looking hurt. "What—"

"I overheard you and Kronos talking last night," I told him. His eyes widened, and I could see the shock behind them. Maybe because he knew he'd never convince me to go along with this. "He said if I don't pass this test, you'll have to kill me. Isn't that right?"

He pursed his lips. "Percy—"

"Well, that's fine," I said, whirling around and resuming my pace. "Because I'd rather die than become a murderer."

I meant it, too. Killing a mortal for no freaking reason? Had Luke completely lost it? That sounded exactly like something the gods would do, and we were supposed to be trying to prove ourselves better than them. I brought out my keycard from my pocket and held it against the lock on my door. It clicked, and I stormed into my room. Luke made to follow me, but I shoved him back angrily.

"Percy, the titan lord has trust issues," he said. "You would too if your own sons chopped you up into a million pieces and threw you into the land of eternal torture. He just needs to confirm that you have the resolve—"

"Sorry, I didn't realize I was getting initiated into some stupid _street gang_," I spat, and slammed the door in his face, locking it.

I leaned on the kitchen counter, my arms spread wide and clutching the sides so hard my knuckles turned white. I tried to sort through all of the thoughts and emotions rushing through my head, but it was hard with Luke calling my name and banging on the door every two seconds. After a brief moment, the noise died down, and I figured he'd given up and left, but then I heard some tinkering sounds on the handle. Before I could react, the door flew open, and I rolled my eyes. Leave it to a child of Hermes to break a state-of-the-art lock in seconds.

Luke entered, and when he saw me, his eyes narrowed, as if wary that I'd walk away again. "We're having a conversation about this," he said.

"No." I began raiding the kitchen, pulling out cans of food from the pantry and bottles of water from the fridge and placing them on the countertop.

"Lord Kronos said, 'a mortal of your choosing'. It could be literally anyone. A death-row convict, a murderer, one of those people that take up the whole aisle in grocery stores."

"I don't care." I moved to the bedroom, going through my strange assortment of chinos and button-downs and tossing whatever looked good into a backpack I found in the closet. I tried to get back into the kitchen, but Luke blocked the doorway.

"Isn't there anyone you can think of that deserves to die?" he asked. "Hell, I could probably name a few. Just turn on the news and I'm sure you'll find a worthy scumbag in minutes!"

I glared at him. "It's not about whether I think they deserve to die or not. That's not for me to decide. There's a whole judicial system in place that'll put them where they belong."

Luke raised an eyebrow. "And what if that system fails, and that asshole escapes justice?" I remained silent, waiting for him to get to the point. He sighed. "Percy, what is it that you think we're doing here? For millennia, the gods have refused to pay the price for their crimes. They've spread misery, and pain, and death, and now we have the opportunity to do something about it. Lord Kronos wants to see if you have the determination to make that happen. If you can't find it in you to bring justice to a mortal, how will you ever be able to do the same to a god?"

Luke paused to let his question sink in. I stared at him, chewing it over. There was just no way that was a fair comparison, it couldn't have been. Shouldn't gods be held to a higher standard than mortals?

"There's a difference between justice and murder," I decided, shoving my way underneath his arm.

I scooped the food supplies I had set out into my bag and zipped it shut. I slung it over my shoulder, gave Luke one last sideways glance, and made for the door.

"No. No, no no," Luke muttered, his voice increasing in volume as he followed me. "Don't you dare turn your back on me, Percy! I'm the only family you've got left, remember? You don't turn your back on family!"

I gritted my teeth as I walked down the hall. As if I needed to be reminded that my mom was gone. I pushed open the door that led to the side of the ship, feeling the crisp ocean breeze rush through my hair. Luke tried to grab me, but I shouldered him away. I climbed up onto the railing and looked down, feeling slightly nauseous. It wasn't nearly as big a drop as the Gateway Arch was, but still, I wasn't too good with heights.

I made the mistake of looking back at Luke. He stood stock still, his face a portrait of anger, betrayal, desperation, but most of all: fear. For a moment, I felt bad. He'd seemed so happy yesterday when I'd agreed to go with him. And now, here I was, leaving him all alone once more. I screwed my eyes shut and turned away.

"Goodbye, Luke," I said, a lump in my throat. Then I jumped.

* * *

Thankfully, it was storming in the city when I got there, so no one was around to see me emerge from the ocean with a fully-stocked backpack like an Atlantean on vacation. I landed in The Battery, down on the southern tip of Manhattan. I might have been able to see the Statue of Liberty behind me if it hadn't been raining so hard.

As I stared up at the skyscrapers before me, I started to question if coming here was a good idea. New York was home for me, so it just felt like the natural place to go. But the storm overhead seemed to be spiraling around the Empire State Building, and I was distinctly reminded that this was also the home of the gods. I wondered how many spies they had walking around the city.

The water raged behind me, slamming into the concrete barrier and spraying me with mist. Lightning touched down somewhere in the harbor and rattled the coastlines.

See, there was this Great Prophecy that I'd heard little bits about from Annabeth and Chiron that would supposedly determine the fate of Olympus. I didn't know what it said, but as near as I could figure, it involved me somehow. I knew from my Ancient Greek lessons just how controlling the gods were when it came to their future, so I was guessing they weren't too happy about my being unaccounted for at camp.

I decided it would probably be best to get out of view of the sky. I'd nearly been struck by lightning twice this summer, and I was not too keen on trying my luck a third time. I took cover in the alleyways between the highrises, where only a sliver of grey could be seen above me.

For the better part of the day, I wandered around aimlessly, just trying to get my head on straight. The longer I did, the more I realized just how deep a hole I'd dug myself into. I had a few changes of clothing and about a week's worth of food in my bag. No money. Nowhere to go. I saw visions of myself five years from now, living in a cardboard box on the side of the road, beard unkempt, performing little magic tricks with water for food.

The storm never let up. Water flowed in streams down the streets into storm drains. I'd never seen Manhattan flood before, but I was wondering if the sewers would be able to handle this much intake. Mortals stuck their heads out their windows and looked up at the sky, probably wondering why the storm hadn't passed yet. It was like the freak weather from the beginning of the summer had returned with a vengeance.

As I walked down a side road somewhere off of 72nd St., I began to hear voices from a nearby alleyway. My first thought was monsters, since most mortals with any sense would be inside right now. But when I turned the corner, I saw three drenched teenagers laughing their asses off at something further down the alley, their backs to me. As I got closer, I saw one of them pick up a piece of garbage and toss it at a cardboard box. His two friends guffawed.

While throwing trash at more trash in the rain wasn't exactly my idea of fun, I figured these guys weren't actually hurting anyone, and decided to leave them be. That was, at least, until the box started moving. One of the kids picked up a glass bottle and chucked it at the side where it bounced off and shattered on the ground. I heard a whimper from someone within the cardboard.

"Come on out, freak!" one of the guys said.

"Yeah, show us your retard strength!" said his buddy.

"Yeah!" said the third.

I felt my blood start to boil in my veins. I'd dealt with plenty of bullies throughout my seven years of education, and these guys were your textbook classroom cronies who only picked on people that wouldn't fight back. Unfortunately for them, they had unwittingly stumbled upon a very pissed off demigod who just completed months of hero training and had nothing to lose. I wondered what Kronos would think if I brought him three heads instead of one.

"Hey!" I called. The three of them spun, a momentary expression of shock on their faces, like they didn't expect anyone else to be out and about right now. "You think that's funny?" I asked.

From the looks of it, they were all a couple years older than me. The biggest looked like he was almost six feet tall, but then again, I'd killed an 8-foot tall half-ton Minotaur, so size wasn't everything. When they saw I was alone, their looks of surprise morphed into predatory grins.

"Yeah, I do," said the first guy matter-of-factly.

"It's freakin' hilarious!" said his buddy.

"Yeah!" said the third.

From behind them, I could see a head poking out of the box, staring at us inquisitively, but when we made eye contact, he ducked back into safety. I guessed I was on my own for this.

The bullies surrounded me. The big one stooped down and picked up a rotting apple core off the ground. My nose scrunched up as he held it out to me. "Here, you try."

I glared at the kid for a moment until his two goons shuffled a little closer. Reluctantly, I took the proffered apple, cringing at how slimy it felt. The bully grinned and stepped to the side, holding out his hand invitingly towards the box.

I stepped forward, took aim, and whipped it right into the side of the bully's head. He gasped in surprise, stumbled into the wall, and tripped into a pile of trash. The other two guys each grabbed one of my arms, but I headbutted the guy to my right and he let go, allowing me to punch the dude on my left in the gut.

They backed off for a second, clearly not used to their victims fighting back, but they recovered from their shock quickly enough. The three of them descended on me, punching and kicking and pulling on my shirt. I got a few good hits in, but there was just no way I could take on three of them at the same time.

Soon enough, I found myself being restrained by Uglies #2 and #3 while the big guy went to town on my face. I heard my nose crack. My lip split against my teeth, and I could feel something loosen in my jaw. I dared a glance toward the box. The guy's head was sticking out further this time, and I realized he was just a kid about my age, and it suddenly made sense why he was so frightened of these guys.

The blows kept coming. I didn't know why. I had already clearly lost. No backup was coming in the foreseeable future. And I knew at this rate, I'd be turned into a vegetable by the time these guys let up. I had to fall back to my last resort.

I felt a familiar tug in my gut, could hear the sound of the rain hitting the ground, the water flowing down the gutters of the buildings. With a cry, I swept the three bullies off their feet in a tidal wave of trash and street water. It may have been heavily polluted, but I could still feel it going to work on my injuries, closing them up and snapping my nose back into place.

My attackers were now sprawled out on the sidewalk, sputtering and gasping. One of them opened their mouth and spat out a soggy wad of chewed bubble gum that I was 99% sure he wasn't chewing before.

I stepped out of the alleyway and glowered at them. When they saw me, their eyes widened.

"A—another freak!"

"Let's get out of here!"

"Yeah!"

I was feeling pretty good about myself as I watched them scamper away, but then the full weight of what I had just done hit me. Those three kids were about to go screaming through the city about how some freak of nature had just blasted them with telekinetic water abilities. I figured I had about 10 minutes before every monster in Manhattan was after me. Or worse, the gods.

Not good. And there was also that kid in the cardboard box, too. Mortal or not, it wouldn't be safe for him to stay here with all the activity this place was about to get.

I turned to look back down the alleyway and blinked in surprise. The kid had come out of his box, and he was even bigger than the guy who'd just been whaling on me. He was kind of brutish looking, with a misshapen face and crooked teeth. I realized he must have seen me controlling the water, because he looked at me with an awed expression on his face.

"Oh, hey," I called out to him. "What you just saw there… it wasn't—"

"You are a son of Poseidon?"

I recoiled, eyes wide. How did he—

And then I looked at him. I mean _really_ looked at him. When I focused on his eyes, his image shimmered, and I saw that there was really only _one_ eye, smack dab in the middle of his face. He was a Cyclops, and by the looks of it, he must have been a baby.

I took a hesitant step forward. I had heard that Cyclopes were powerful, deceitful creatures that dined on human flesh, but this one seemed so _innocent_ that I just couldn't be afraid of him.

I approached him slowly, not wanting to scare him off. "I'm Percy," I said. "What's your name?"

"I am Tyson." Tyson frowned, his one huge eyebrow furrowing. "But you are a son of Poseidon?" he asked again.

He spoke slowly, enunciating every syllable like he was unused to speaking. Or maybe he was still learning.

"Um… yeah, big guy. My father is Poseidon." My face involuntarily morphed into a scowl.

Tyson's, however, lit up with delight. "Then we are brothers!" He clapped his hands together so loudly I could hear it over the rolling thunder.

"B-brothers?" I stuttered. "Wait a minute. You mean—"

He giggled happily. You'd think the kid had just won the lottery. "Father Poseidon has sent me a brother!"

That was one of the things I had forgotten about Cyclopes. Most of them were children of Poseidon. Apparently, my dad had gotten all moony-eyed over a nature spirit, and Tyson had been the result.

My eyes drifted from Tyson's grimy size-twenty sneakers, tattered jeans, and hole-ridden flannel to his dilapidated cardboard box, which was beginning to collapse on itself from the rain. I wondered how often those teenagers picked on him, and just how many monsters he must've had to deal with living out on the streets. Here was another child of the gods, abandoned and left to fend for themselves in the gutter. Even if he technically _was_ a monster, it was still a pretty cruel thing to do to your kid.

My eyes hardened. I cursed under my breath, knowing what I had to do. "Say, Tyson. How would you like to sleep in a real bed tonight?"

He looked at me in shock, his big eye glistening. "Really?" he asked. "Yes! Yes, please!"

I smiled at his giddiness. "Good, there's just one thing I need to do first. Follow me."

It was time to pay my step-father a visit.


	7. The Junkyard Man

You know, it was kind of funny. There had been plenty of times throughout my childhood that I wanted to tear off my stepfather's head, but now that I was walking towards my old apartment with the express intent of doing just that, I felt sick to my stomach.

Smelly Gabe was the worst human being I knew, and I use the term 'human being' loosely here. He never cared about me or my mom. I don't think he ever cared about anybody but himself. To him, people were just servants. 'Make me some more bean dip, Sally,' or 'Cough it up, kid. I know you've got some cash on you.' That was the usual interaction with him. Despite never working a day in his life, he still somehow held down a job as a manager of some electronics store, and he used his paychecks to fuel his alcohol and gambling addictions. I wouldn't have been surprised if his ass was permanently glued to his poker chair by this point.

I doubt he shed a single tear when the search for my mom finally ended and she was declared dead. And I knew with certainty that he was perfectly happy never having to deal with her brat ever again. I'd met monsters with more common decency than Gabe Ugliano.

Yet, despite how sickening he was, did he really deserve to die? Part of me wanted to say yes, but _technically_ the man never did anything illegal. It wasn't against the law to be an asshole. It just didn't win you many friends.

My doubts festered within my mind as we navigated the city, and the questions Tyson asked me didn't exactly improve my mood either.

"Where are we going?"

"My old apartment."

"We will sleep there?"

"...No. I just need to get something."

"I meet your family?"

"Um, no. You'll wait outside. My stepdad doesn't like strangers. Or anyone for that matter."

"Oh." He went silent for a little, and just when I thought he'd run out of questions, he asked the worst one yet. "What is daddy like?"

I took a deep breath, resisting the urge to tell him off. I had to remind myself that he was just a toddler by Cyclops standards. "He's…" I began, but I didn't know how to finish that sentence. Selfish? Neglectful? A coward? "... not very nice," I settled on.

Tyson frowned, obviously not satisfied with that answer. "But he sent you to me."

I shook my head. "Nobody sent me, big guy. It was just a coincidence that I ran into you. Poseidon doesn't care about us."

I hated to burst his bubble, but Tyson deserved the truth. For a long time, I had been just like him, believing that there was a good reason that my dad couldn't visit and that he still cared about me. It would have saved me a lot of heartache if someone had come along and told me not to get my hopes up a long time ago, rather than letting me find out the hard way. I wanted to say more, like how good parents didn't let their kids live in cardboard boxes or call them mistakes, but Tyson already looked like he was about to cry, so I shut my mouth.

Thankfully, he dropped the subject, but I felt really bad for him. The guy looked like Christmas had been cancelled. He gazed down at the ground, squeezing his meaty hands together and twiddling his thumbs.

"Sorry I did not help back there," he said, shooting me a guilty look. I realized he was talking about the bullies. "I am a coward."

"Oh, nah, it's alright, man. Those guys were scary." To be honest, I was kind of glad Tyson didn't get involved. Even though he was young, he still had the strength of a silverback gorilla. He might have punched a hole straight through those kids, and then I'd have even bigger problems.

"Hurt you," he said, pointing at my face. I brought a hand up to my mouth involuntarily, feeling my cracked lip. I guessed my injuries hadn't completely healed like I thought.

"Oh, this? It's nothing. Don't worry about it."

Tyson sniffled. "You are a good person."

Those words only made my uncertainty deepen as my apartment came into view. I didn't think he'd be saying that if he knew what I was about to do. I forced myself to keep moving forward, because I knew that if I hesitated even a little, there was no way I'd be able to go through with it.

Gabe had gotten himself another shiny red Camaro. It was parked on the side of the street, the rain giving it a nice wash. The last one had been exploded by Zeus, and then tossed half a mile through the air by a massive bullman. "Not a scratch," Gabe had told my mom and I as he handed us the keys. _Whoops._

I told Tyson to wait by the car. I felt bad making him stand out in the rain, but it was infinitely better than standing next to Smelly Gabe. Trying to fight down the nausea in my stomach, I approached the door, thinking of all the ways this could go wrong.

Lord Kronos said I had twenty-four hours, and I'd already spent most of the day doing practically nothing. What if he wasn't home? It wasn't like he had my mom to take care of him, so he'd have to leave the house to get groceries and stuff, right? Or what if he'd moved entirely? Maybe my stunt in Los Angeles made him realize what a lucrative market for electronics he'd have there.

I sucked in a breath and knocked on the door, allowing the rain to soak me. It would have been kinda hard to explain how I was completely dry after walking through a downpour like this. The apartment was silent for a moment. All I could hear was the rain and the sound of my own beating heart. Then I heard voices arguing. I muttered a curse under my breath. _Great_. _He has company._

After a few seconds, the door cracked open, and my eyes widened. I hadn't been expecting a woman to answer the door. _He moves on fast,_ I thought wryly.

She looked to be in her late thirties, with shoulder length black hair and stress lines on her face. She wore a black, leather jacket and a white baseball cap that had the word _SIEMENS _on the front, which I was somehow able to make out even through my dyslexia. She seemed a little timid, but when she saw me, her eyes widened in recognition, which was strange because I'd never seen her before in my life. She opened the door the rest of the way, and I saw the reason she was trying to hide herself. She would've been really pretty, if not for the nasty bruise that covered her left eye.

"Gabe, honey?" she called into the house.

"Yeah? Who is it?" came my stepfather's gruff voice.

"It's—it's—Oh, you poor child. Come in, come in." She placed a hand on my shoulder and steered me into the hallway.

"_Who?"_ Gabe asked again, but the woman was too busy brushing the drenched hair out of my face and fussing over my injuries (seriously, were they _that _bad?) to answer him. I heard a lot of grumbling and shuffling as Gabe attempted to extract himself from wherever his ass was currently planted.

"We thought you were dead," the woman explained. "I saw what happened to you on the news. How you were kidnapped, and dragged all the way to Los Angeles. It was a big story here. I thought you'd been rescued by the police, but then Gabe told me you never made it back home! Oh, thank the heavens you made it out. I can't imagine what you've been through. I'm…" Her face fell, and she looked at me with such pity in her eyes. "I'm so sorry about your mother. She was never found, was she?"

My mouth hung open. I didn't know what to say. I had no idea who this lady was, but as I listened to her worrying over me, I was reminded so much of my mom it hurt.

When she saw my expression, her face hardened. "What awful people to do something like that to you. I hope they get what's coming to them."

I stared at her. "Um," I began hesitantly. "Who—"

She straightened, realizing she'd forgotten something. "Oh, silly me. I'm Irene, Gabe's girlfriend. A pleasure to meet you."

She held out her hand, and I shook it tentatively. At that moment, Gabe came around the corner. He froze, the cigar he'd been smoking falling straight out of his mouth and onto the hardwood floor. I watched his face turn red as a tomato.

"You—"

"Your stepson is alive, Gabe!" Irene said. "Isn't that wonderful?"

I got the sense that Gabe didn't think my return was so wonderful. His eyes were narrowed at me. He'd put on weight since I'd last seen him. Too much bean dip, by the looks of it.

"You got some nerve coming back here after what you did to my Camaro, punk," he said, poking a dorito-dusted finger into my chest like it was _my _fault.

"I'm sure it was an accident, honey," Irene said, inching her way between me and Gabe. There was an edge to her voice that I couldn't quite place. "They were attacked, remember?"

Gabe rolled his eyes. "I don't buy that story for one measly second. This kid is a good-for-nothing delinquent flunky and he's got ten seconds to get out of my house before I call the cops."

"But Gabe, look at him! He's drenched, and injured, and he came to us for help! Can't he stay, at least for a little while?"

I stared at the back of Irene's head in awe at how generous she was being towards a total stranger. How did Gabe manage to ensnare such nice people? In some ways, my stepfather was a lot like the apartment and car he owned. On the outside, it was clean, well-kept, and even indicated a bit of wealth. But then you got a look on the inside, and you realized it was just a junkyard reeking of cigars and stale beer.

I cleared my throat. "Um, actually, I already have a place to stay. I just came here to get some of my things."

Irene turned to me, her eyebrows raised in surprise. "What? Are you sure? I don't think it would be a problem to clear out the guest room and—"

"Dammit, I said 'no', Irene!" Gabe yelled. The woman seemed to shrink in on herself. "He ain't staying here. And _you,_" he said, directing his glare at me. He was so mad that spittle was flying from his lips as he shouted. "You ain't touching anything up there. If you wanted your junk so badly, you should've come and cleared it out months ago. Everything up in that room is _mine_ now. Now. Get. Out. Or I _will_ get the police involved. Oh, and if your delinquent friend out there even touches that paint job, you're dead."

I fingered the pen in my pocket, trying to swallow down my rage. I couldn't kill him now, not with Irene standing right there. Besides, Riptide didn't work on humans, and Gabe was by the loosest definition human. It was times like this when I wished I had a weapon like Backbiter, able to work on mortals and immortals both. Deciding to ignore him for the time being, I headed for the stairs, taking them two at a time.

Gabe growled. "That's _it_!" he shouted, taking his cell phone out of his pocket and angrily dialing 9-1-1.

Irene tried to intervene, but Gabe raised a hand, and she flinched away. I froze, my hand gripping the bannister so hard I could hear the wood starting to crack. I'd had my suspicions, but this confirmed it. Gabe was the one that gave her the black eye. And Irene's reaction made me realize something. I'd seen my mom flinch the same way before when Gabe got angry. I didn't know when, and I didn't know how often, but Gabe had hit my mother. Irene glanced at me out of the corner of her eye, as if expecting something from me. I hesitated, then angrily shoved off the banister and marched the rest of the way up the stairs.

As I opened the door to my old room, I started looking for a suitable murder weapon. I heard Gabe get on the line with the cops downstairs, and he told Irene to wait for them outside. I realized Tyson was still out there, and he'd probably cry if he had to talk to any police officers, so I knew I had to be quick.

While I was gone, the room had been turned into Gabeland. Junk littered the floor ankle deep, dirty underwear and socks hung off of the lampshade, and the blinds over the window were bent and broken, as if _someone_ had drunkenly stumbled into them a few too many times.

I hadn't been lying about coming here to collect my belongings. I found my old backpack, still filled with notebooks, folders, and other school supplies from Yancy Academy. I promptly flipped the bag upside down and emptied its contents on the floor where they fit in with the rest of the junk. Leaning against the wall was my skateboard, but I tossed it aside since it wouldn't really fit in my bag. From on top of the dresser I grabbed my favorite movie _The Truman Show_, my iPod that had been collecting dust for the past few months, and a few CDs that I used to play when Gabe wasn't around to complain about the noise (which was rare).

As I scanned the room, I came across a screwdriver, a hammer, a tire iron, and a bunch of other common tools that could've been featured in any slasher film, but as I pictured myself using them on Gabe, my stomach became queasy. I'd sliced up quite a few monsters over the summer, but killing a human was different. Humans didn't exactly just disappear in a cloud of golden dust and reform when they die, and Gabe was already ugly enough on the outside. I didn't want to know what the inside looked like.

My eyes landed on a cardboard box sitting on my bed that I was fairly certain hadn't been there when I entered the room.

Warily, I got up and approached it. It looked like it was just about the right size to fit a basketball. On the address label was some messy handwriting that I recognized instantly. My own.

This was the package I'd sent to the gods during a rather sudden stroke of impertinence on my part at the beginning of my quest. Medusa's head. On the top of the package was a white sticker where a man's clear, bold handwriting had penned, "RETURN TO SENDER."

I tried to swallow the bile rising in my throat. Someone on Olympus was watching me.

Sirens blared in the distance, and I knew I was running out of time. Gabe was coming up the stairs, cursing and muttering. I thought about Tyson, standing out there in the rain, and how I promised he wouldn't have to sleep in a cardboard box anymore. I thought about Luke, who I'd left behind only a day after I joined him, and how he'd probably be forced to kill me if I didn't go through with this. And I thought about my mom, who'd put up with the awful man outside my door for _12 years_ just to protect me.

I made my decision.

I uncapped Riptide and sliced open the box. Making sure to avert my gaze, I reached my hand into it and took out the head, still double wrapped in her Middle Eastern burqa. I unravelled it, wincing as my fingers came across the slimy snakes that made up her hair-do. I picked it up, plopped it down on the bed facing the doorway, and waited.

"Cops are on their way, brain boy! If even one thing is out of place in there, you're dea—"

He never got to finish his sentence. As soon as he stepped through the doorway, I removed the sunglasses from Medusa's head, and he froze. With how repugnant Gabe liked to keep his surroundings, I didn't think anything could faze him at this point, but as he rapidly solidified into stone, I could see his expression morph into terror. Not a great poker face.

Standing before me was a perfect 5'6" stone replica of my stepfather. I let go of the breath I hadn't known I'd been holding. The man who'd abused my mother and I for years was dead. It had been so easy.

Half in a state of shock, I rewrapped Medusa's head in the burqa and shoved it in the box, reapplying the tape to make sure it wouldn't spill out. When my bag was zipped up and the head all squared away, I realized I had another problem.

I hardly would've been able to lift Gabe even if he were still human. Now, I'd gone and made him multiple times heavier. I only needed the head, but after another quick search through the junkyard that used to be my room, I found nothing capable of cutting through stone. My heart racing, I ran to the window, cursing as the blinds got stuck on themselves when I tried to raise them. I tore them right out of the frame and pulled the window open.

Tyson was still standing down by the Camaro, Irene trying to make awkward small talk with him. The sirens were getting closer now, maybe just a few streets down.

"Tyson!" I called. The Cyclops looked up at me, his big eye blinking away raindrops. "I need you to help me carry some things."

He nodded his head enthusiastically and ran for the door, shouting, "Yes, I will help!"

I was about to duck my head back into the room when Irene called my name. I peered down at her. "I'm sorry about how Gabe is handling this," she called up to me. "Don't you worry about the police, I'll sort this out with them."

"I appreciate it," I said, trying my best to give her a reassuring smile, but it was kind of hard with her petrified boyfriend gazing into my back.

I pulled my head back in and shut the window, frowning. I had only known Irene for less than fifteen minutes, but already I could tell she was one of the kindest people I'd ever met. And here I just killed her boyfriend. I didn't know what she saw in Gabe, but I hoped she wouldn't be too broken up over his death. I couldn't see how anyone _could_ be.

Tyson thundered up the stairs and emerged in the doorway, staring at me over the newest decoration in the room.

He looked pretty confused when I told him I needed him to carry the statue, but he must have realized how much of a rush I was in, because he nodded, no questions asked. He picked up the sculpture like it was made of paper mache and hefted it onto his shoulders. I grabbed the box from my bed and readjusted the bag on my shoulders, and then together we bolted back out of the house.

From the sound of it, the cops were just around the corner. Irene looked completely bewildered when we rushed past her.

"You're leaving already?" she asked. "Maybe you should wait until I talk to the..."

She must have noticed what Tyson was carrying at that moment, because she trailed off, a look of utter perplexity on her face.

"That… But I don't remember seeing that… Where did you—"

"Irene," I said, and her attention snapped to me. I couldn't tell if she had figured out what happened yet, but it was clear she knew something was up. "I think you should try and forget about Gabe," I said softly. "He... hurts people. He hurt my mom and I, and by the looks of it, he hurt you too."

Slowly, she brought a hand up and touched the purplish skin under her eye. Her gaze turned back to the statue Tyson was holding.

"But now he won't hurt anyone ever again," I told her. "I'm sorry. I wish I could explain more right now, but…"

My gaze turned down the street. Three police cruisers were now visible at the end of it, their lights flashing off the windows of the adjacent buildings.

Irene took a step forward, and something in her changed. She stood a little taller. The puzzlement disappeared from her face, replaced by a smile. Her eyes beamed at me with pride, and as I met her gaze, the discolored skin below her eye slowly faded back to a normal, pale color. Now, it was my turn to be completely lost.

"You've done well, Perseus," she said. The kind, motherly lilt in her voice was gone, replaced by a cold casualness. "I tried to give your stepfather another chance to redeem himself, to make up for his past crimes, but alas, you can't draw blood from stone."

The police were pulling up on the street behind her now. Even over the deafening wail of the sirens, I could hear her perfectly. "All men must get their due," she said, taking a few steps backward. "Why shouldn't the same apply to gods as well?"

The letters on her hat seemed to float right off of the fabric. At first, I thought my dyslexia was acting up, but then they began to rearrange themselves. My eyes widened when the last letter fell into place. The hat had a completely different word on it now. _NEMESIS._ I was speaking with the goddess of revenge.

She turned to the police. Several of them had gotten out of their cruisers, one of whom was currently checking out the Camaro. She waved her arm at them. "It's okay, gentlemen. Justice has been served."

At once, the officers' eyes turned foggy. They shared looks with each other, nodded, and got back into their vehicles. Nemesis produced a set of keys from her pocket and winked at us. Pressing the button on one of them, the Camaro chirped and then unlocked. She got in and closed the door behind her as the police drove off. The engine roared to life.

Rolling down the window, she leaned out and called to me. "Go now," she said. "Return to the _Princess Andromeda _with your spoils. I'll be watching you, Percy Jackson."

The tires squealed as she tore onto the road and sped off.

Speechless, all I could do was meet Tyson's eye and nod to him. We made a break for it, ducking into a nearby alleyway, looking like we'd just robbed an art museum and leaving behind a newly vacant, smelly apartment.

I wouldn't miss it.

* * *

**I've been excited for a while to get this chapter out. Let me know what you think! Fun fact: I had this chapter written weeks ago, but Nemesis wasn't in it. Instead, it was just a regular mortal who had fallen for Gabe some way or another. And then I realized that was completely unrealistic. No one could ever love him.**

**Another fun fact: The title of this chapter is named after _Junkyard_ by Zac Brown Band. I felt like the lyrics fit pretty well to Percy's situation here.**


	8. Pop Quiz

The sky was beginning to clear up as we leapfrogged our way from street to street. I was pretty sure Nemesis took care of our law enforcement problem, but just to be safe, we hid from patrol cars as they passed and tried our best to look inconspicuous. Which, I admit, was a little difficult considering Tyson was holding a life-size replica of my stepfather like it were a paperweight. The sun was poking through the clouds on the horizon now, long shadows being cast by the skyscrapers around us. If Tyson was getting tired from carrying the statue around the city, he didn't show it, though I could see him become apprehensive whenever sirens wailed by.

He shifted beside me as we hid behind a stack of mattresses, waiting for a few pedestrians to pass. "Are we in trouble?" he whispered.

"No, I don't think so. That was the goddess Nemesis back there. She took care of it for us."

I wasn't sure if Tyson understood anything that just happened. I tried to explain to him that my stepdad had overreacted and called the police when I got to the apartment, but it was a little difficult leaving out the part where I'd turned him to stone and that the statue he was holding actually used to be a person. I didn't know why I was so hesitant to tell him the truth. Maybe I was afraid of what he'd think of me if he knew.

He just stared at me as I stumbled over my words, and I started to wonder if that big eye of his could see right through me.

We were both startled by the sound of a garbage can getting knocked over behind us at the end of the alleyway. I turned, half expecting to see those jerkbag teenagers who were picking on Tyson again, or maybe a pair of cops on our trail, but what I saw instead nearly made me jump out of my skin.

It was a creature with the head of a woman. She had coppery skin and glowing yellow eyes, slitted like a cat's. The rest of her body was coated in thick, golden fur. Slowly, she stalked forward on all fours, her claws scraping dissonantly against the asphalt. We must have looked tasty, because as she eyed us up, she licked her lips and smiled, revealing two long, sharp fangs. Beside me, Tyson whimpered and took a step back.

"Sphinx from 72nd Street," he mumbled. "Big bully."

I cursed under my breath. My stunt with the teenagers must have attracted it. Turns out going back the way we came hadn't been one of my smarter ideas. The monster strutted forward, but made no immediate signs of aggression. Rather than preparing to pounce, it held its head high, its tail waving in the air behind it.

"Perrrrseus Jackson," the sphinx purred. I wasn't sure how it knew my name, but then again, I'd read the sphinx was supposed to be super smart, so I wouldn't have been surprised if it was up-to-date with current events. "Getting into a bit of trouble now, are we? Playing hooky on camp, bullying those poor mortals. Naughty, naughty. Detention for an eternity, I think."

I don't think the sphinx had any idea just how triggering the d-word was to me. I thought about whipping out Riptide and running her through just to shut her up, but then I remembered I had one of the most powerful weapons in the world right inside the cardboard box I was holding. I set it down and went about opening up its flaps. The sphinx just laughed mockingly at me.

"That will not work on me, Son of Poseidon," she said, as if sensing my intentions. "I was carved from stone back in Ancient Egypt, and my sculptors were far more talented than any the world has seen since. Medusa herself could never hope to create anything as beautiful as I. Certainly not _that _thing." She nodded her head towards my stone-cold stepfather, still hefted over Tyson's shoulder. I was kind of inclined to agree with her.

"How modest of you," I muttered, standing back up.

The sphinx's eyes lit up. "I'm flattered," she said, batting her eyelashes. "But I digress. If you wish to be rid of me, you must first solve my riddle. This one here," she began, pointing at Tyson with a long, curved claw, "has already taken my quiz and failed. Perhaps you are smarter."

Tyson shrunk in on himself. I wondered just how many monsters the guy had to deal with living out on the streets, and the thought made my blood boil. He didn't deserve this. I had to protect him. "Riddle is hard," he said. "Eat you if you get it wrong."

"Class is in session!" the creature announced.

Tyson and I gave each other looks, my hand instinctively reaching into my pocket for my sword-pen. Why did monsters always impersonate teachers?

The sphinx cleared its throat. "Raise your hand if you know the answer! Ahem, what walks on four legs in the morn—"

My hand shot up. Was she serious? This was, like, the oldest riddle in the book. The sphinx's question trailed off, and she looked at me speechlessly.

"Um, Perseus?" she called on me.

"Man. Man crawls on all fours as a baby, walks on two legs as an adult, and uses a cane as a third leg when they get old. The answer is man."

The sphinx's eyes widened, and Tyson gaped at me as if I were the most intelligent person he'd ever met.

"How?" the monster wailed. "I didn't even finish the riddle!"

"It was easy," I told her. "You've been telling that same riddle ever since Ancient Greece. I learned about it in my Latin class. Everyone knows the answer to that one by now." I winced. "Except... maybe not Tyson."

The creature stamped her foot. "Urgh! A thousand curses upon Oedipus! Why did he have to tell everybody? It spoils the fun!"

She swatted angrily at the fallen trash can, leaving huge gashes in the metal and spilling junk everywhere. I started to back away, not wanting to get caught in the monster's temper tantrum.

"So… we can go now, right?" I asked. "I solved your riddle."

"No!" she snarled, her features morphing into a scowl. _Now _she seemed aggressive. She stalked forward slowly, her head low to the ground and lips pulled back into a snarl. "You cheated! But, I am merciful. I won't give you an F if you can answer another question. What is the capital of Georgia?"

My eyebrows furrowed. This was a lot different from her previous question. _That_ riddle was supposed to make you think. This was just random trivia. Either you knew it or you didn't. I tried to remember back to my 4th grade US States class. Georgia. Peaches. Hot. The place the devil went down to.

"Um, Atlanta?" I guessed.

The sphinx's smile widened. "Wrong!" she sang happily. "It's Tbilisi! I was talking about the _country_ Georgia. You failed, so now I get to eat you!"

I had never even heard of a 'tub-a-lee-see', much less knew where it was. I wanted to yell at the sphinx and tell her that her question was stupid and unfair, but I figured she'd probably rather listen to her stomach than me. She pounced at us hungrily.

Riptide was already in my hand. I dove to the side and slashed at the sphinx, but she must have been telling the truth when she said her skin was made of stone. Where I had been expecting a large gash to open up in her side was instead a thin, pale scratch. It didn't even seem to faze her. Tyson managed to jump back in time to avoid the sphinx's claws, but her attention was now focused on him.

I thought I was about to witness my new friend get turned into mince meat, but then he wound the statue of my stepfather around his shoulder like a baseball bat and swung it straight into the sphinx's face, screaming, "BAD KITTY!". She wailed as she was launched a dozen feet into the air and crash landed at the end of the alley.

"Nice one, Tyson!" I said, giving him a thumbs up. He beamed at me.

I was hoping the monster had been taken care of, but the sphinx was back on her feet in seconds.

"My nose!" she cried, her voice nasally. "My nose!"

She had her head to the ground, paws covering her face and eyes frantically searching the ground around her. When she stood back up, I saw that indeed, there was a jagged area on her face where her nose had broken off. She looked almost exactly like the Great Sphinx of Giza that I'd seen in pretty much every history textbook. I quickly scanned the area and found the missing chunk of stone near Tyson's feet. I stooped down and picked it up, casually tossing it into the air and catching it.

"You want your nose back?" I called to the monster.

She stopped her search and turned to me, her eyes zeroing in on the stone I held above my head. She made a strangled noise like "Mmgh!" which I assumed was an affirmative. I gave a pointed look to Tyson, and he seemed to read me.

"Then go long!"

I pitched the nose directly at Tyson, and the Cyclops pulled back on the statue and swung once more, sending the rock flying directly over the apartment building across from us. An out-of-the-park homerun. The sphinx went howling after it.

I let out a sigh of relief and turned to Tyson, who seemed unscathed. I was about to congratulate ourselves for getting out of that fight without a scratch on us, but that wasn't entirely true. The statue of Gabe was starting to crumble. His left arm had been broken off when Tyson slammed it into the sphinx, and cracks were now starting to spread throughout the rest of the body.

"Uh oh," Tyson said.

Before my eyes, the petrified remnants of my stepfather fell to pieces from Tyson's grasp. _No, no, no!_ I needed that statue as proof that I completed my task. Without it, I would… I would have to kill another mortal before the night was over. And I just couldn't do that.

I lunged forward as quickly as I could and managed to catch a bowling-ball sized piece of stone before it could shatter against the ground. I turned it over in my hands and nearly dropped it again when I was met with Gabe's ugly, terrified face.

"Sorry, sorry!" Tyson said, scrambling to pick up the pieces.

I sat on the ground, staring at the stone I held in my hands. Kronos _had_ asked me to bring him a head. He'd never said anything about a full body. "It's okay, big guy. This is all I need."

I gave the head back to Tyson, picked up the _other_ head in the cardboard box, slung my bag around my shoulders, and then we continued on our way.

The stone head was a lot easier to conceal than the stone statue, so we were able to walk out amongst the pedestrians without attracting too much attention. We didn't run into any more cops or monsters the rest of the way to the bay. I thought I was going to have to will the currents to move Tyson through the water, but it turns out he was just as strong a swimmer as me, even with an arm wrapped around Gabe's head. I didn't have to worry about my bag or the cardboard box getting wet thanks to my powers over water.

From there, it was smooth sailing back to the _Princess Andromeda._ Thankfully, the ship was in the exact same place it was when I left it. Maybe Luke wanted to give me the full twenty four hours before he set out to kill me.

Since I was teleported to the main deck the first time I boarded the ship, I didn't get to see the masthead until now. It was a three-story tall figure of a woman, sculpted to appear chained to the bow of the ship. She was young and beautiful, wearing a white chiton, but her expression was one of absolute terror, not unlike the look permanently etched onto my stepfather's face.

It didn't register in my mind until then that the _Princess Andromeda_ was named after the Ancient Greek princess who had been chained up to be sacrificed to my father. He had sent a sea monster to devour her, but she had been saved by my namesake, Perseus, using the very same weapon on the monster that I now held in a box in my hands: Medusa's head.

I'm not exactly sure what Andromeda did to warrant my father sending a sea monster after her, but I thought it was fitting that I was swimming towards her now, like I was going to save her from the gods once again.

A voice inside my head startled me. "_You live there?"_

I glanced around, confused, but the only person near me was Tyson, and I knew our voices wouldn't carry underwater.

"_What is wrong?"_ the voice came again. Ok, it was definitely Tyson's voice.

"_Did you just speak to me telepathically?" _I thought.

"_No, I talked to you inside your head. What is tele_—_telephone-ally?"_

"_Um, never mind. And yes, I live here. You do now, too."_

The ship grew as we got closer, and Tyson marveled at the white hull, brightly lit balconies, and porthole windows. "_Pretty,"_ he said. "_Like a sea-city."_

It was dark by the time we made it to the ship. Getting up the ladder was a little tricky with the box in my hand, but months of practice on the climbing wall at camp paid off and I reached the main deck in no time.

The sky was clear, and a half-moon illuminated the horizon off the port side of the ship. Off the starboard end, I could see the sky in the distance shining with the collective light of New York City. A myriad of stars dotted the blackness above us, and the Milky Way stretched from one end of my vision to the other. Being from the city, it wasn't often I got to see sights like this, and they took my breath away every time I did.

Tyson lumbered up the ladder behind me, the head still firmly tucked underneath his arm. I placed my own cargo down and stuck a hand out to help him up, very nearly plummeting back into the ocean when he grasped it. I pulled with all my might until we both collapsed on the solid floor, panting from the effort of such a long swim.

Except for the calming sounds of the sea and my own labored breathing, the ship was quiet. The holographic guests were nowhere to be found. The only other person on the ship right now would be Luke, and I figured he'd be passed out at this hour.

"Wow," Tyson said as he sat up, his jaw dropping down to his chest. A grin broke across my face as the Cyclops turned in a full circle, admiring the ship as if in a trance. I couldn't blame him; I'd probably had the same dumb expression on my face the day before when Luke first brought me here.

But that grin fell away when my eyes landed on the chunk of stone lying next to him. I remembered with a grimace that my task wasn't completed yet.

I tried to tell myself that the hardest part was over with. Gabe was dead and gone, and now all I had to do was pick up his head, bring it before Kronos' sarcophagus, and then my mini-quest would be completed. But there was something I was dreading, a feeling even worse than the trepidation I felt when I knocked on my stepfather's door.

Tyson hadn't seen what I'd done to Gabe. He didn't know I was a murderer, working to bring down the gods and destroy our father. He had called me a good person earlier, and I didn't want him to be wrong.

But I couldn't hide it forever. I took a deep breath, knowing this conversation needed to be had now. In fact, it probably should have happened as soon as we left my apartment, but the sphinx hadn't allowed for that.

"Hey, Tyson?"

"Yes?" he asked, marveling at the 15-story cabin high rise in front of us.

"There's something I need to tell you," I began awkwardly. "I haven't really been straight with you. I'm not… I'm not as good of a person as you think I am."

His enormous eye fixed on me, wide, innocuous. "What you mean?" he asked.

Why was this so hard to explain? Why did I care about what this… _monster_ thought about me? Was it because he was my half brother? Or was it because when I looked into his eye, all I saw was innocence? Dejectedly, I pointed to the head sitting next to him. "That statue you've been toting around all day—well, it isn't really a statue…"

Tyson blinked. Or winked, rather. I didn't think he was catching on.

"...It's my stepfather. I turned him to stone using Medusa's head," I told him.

Tyson continued to stare blankly. "Yes," he said.

I did a double take and met his gaze, trying to swallow back my surprise. I'd already begun formulating a list of reasons why I did what I did, to try to break it to him in a way he'd understand and wouldn't hate me for. I wasn't expecting _that_ kind of response. Yes? Like, he knew? And he didn't care? Or rather, it was more probable that he just didn't understand completely.

"... as in, I killed him," I explained further. "He's dead now."

Tyson nodded. "Yes," he said again. "Bad man gone. Hurt people, like nasty sphinx. Irene told me. Er, Ne-mah-sis."

Nemesis. I'd nearly forgotten that the two of them had been chatting outside the apartment together while I'd done the deed. Had she told Tyson about what a monster Gabe was?

"Turned him to stone. Not a bad thing," he asserted, and at that moment, I could feel tears springing to my eyes. Cyclopes weren't exactly known for their emotional intelligence, but for some reason, I found myself trusting Tyson's moral compass. And if he wasn't horrified by what I'd done, well, then maybe I _had_ done the right thing after all.

I turned away and stared out at the sea, not wanting him to see me getting emotional. I also wasn't sure how he'd take what I wanted to tell him next.

But I told him anyways.

I told him that I was working for Kronos, and that together, demigods and titans would bring down the gods once and for all. I told him the gods were just like Gabe, always hurting others and neglecting their families, and that the world was better off without them. That _we_ were better off without them.

Tyson was silent for a long time. Eventually, I turned away from the sea and let my gaze rest on him. He wouldn't look at me. He stared at the wooden planks below our feet, and in his downcast eye I could see a myriad of emotions swirling around. I couldn't tell which was winning. Anger, pain, betrayal, longing, denial, reluctance. In the end, it seemed sadness won out. A large, singular tear fell from the center of his eye and fell onto his tattered flannel shirt.

My heart reached out for him. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner," I said softly. He regarded me with an expression I couldn't read. "If you don't want to stay here, I get it. You can sleep in that bed I promised you, and I'll take you back to New York first thing in the morning."

"No," Tyson asserted. "I stay."

For the second time that night, Tyson surprised me. "You'll—you want to stay?" I asked. "And help fight the gods?"

Tyson's face hardened, his large eye narrowing. He shouldered his way past me and set his hands down on the guard rail, gripping it hard and glaring out at the sea.

Stunned, I stared after him. "Big guy?" I asked uncertainly.

"Daddy is mean," he said. "He… He _left_ me. He left me all by myself, and he never listened to my prayers. I…" His hands tightened around the railing, causing the metal to groan and bend outward. "I will help you. We will crush him!" he roared furiously.

The strength of his voice took me aback, and I realized that as young as he was, Tyson would make a fearsome enemy. Unsure of what to do, I approached him awkwardly and placed a hand on his shoulder, and before I knew it I was enveloped in a bone-crushing hug that expelled all the air from my lungs. I could feel the wetness from Tyson's face soak into my shirt and immediately evaporate.

"I will join you, brother," he said into my shoulder.

"Unf!" I managed to choke out.

Seeming to have noticed my face was the wrong color, Tyson immediately let go. I sat down hard on the ground, gasping for breath.

"Sorry, sorry!"

As my vision began to come back, my eyes fixed on the stone head that had been nearly forgotten next to the ladder. It was rolling back and forth in time to the rocking of the waves. I stumbled over and grabbed it before it could fall overboard.

I let out a sigh of relief. Aside from nearly suffocating, that conversation had gone much better than I'd imagined it would.

"Alright, big guy. Time for you to meet the boss."

* * *

**Aw, I love writing Tyson. He's so softhearted, but he really wants to impress Percy. It's interesting seeing what Tyson would do for him, even going so far as to turn his back on Poseidon.**


	9. I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

**IMPORTANT: I went back and revised this chapter a bit. If you're rereading this chapter, you should know that the only major change is that I reverted the prophecy back to the original one in the books. I did this for a couple of reasons. The first is that when I started this story, I really only wanted to change one thing and see how it snowballed. That change being losing his mother. The original prophecy was ambiguous enough to allow me to work with that. The second reason was that I only have a general idea of how this series will end, and even that may change. For now, it's safest just to keep the original prophecy.**

* * *

To his credit, Tyson only knocked over one expensive-looking vase as we made our way to my room, which was a lot better than I was expecting. He wasn't the most graceful of Cyclopes.

When we got to my room, I held my keycard up against the door and heard the lock click. Tyson looked on in fascination as my stateroom was revealed. A stab of guilt ran through me. Last night, while I'd been partying it up with Coca-cola and Cheez-Whiz, my half-brother had been alone, trying to sleep in a rain-soaked cardboard box off of 42nd Street.

I set the package containing Medusa's head down on the kitchen table and shrugged my pack off my shoulders. I noted with a degree of amusement that I hadn't actually needed any of the things I'd hastily packed that morning.

Tyson's jaw hung open in awe as he moved around the room, asking about some of the things he found. Apparently, he'd never heard of a Playstation before. I resolved to play Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 with him as soon as we had some free time, but at that moment, we had more pressing matters to attend to. Notably, the stone head currently resting in my hands.

As I stared at Smelly Gabe's horrified face, I realized that I didn't feel anything. No remorse, but no satisfaction either. And that terrified me. Sure, Gabe had been a monster to my mom and I for years, but that didn't change the fact that I had just taken a human life. Was it supposed to be this easy?

I shook myself out of that train of thought. Before Nemesis had revealed her true identity to me, I had told her to forget about Gabe and move on. I figured it would be best for me just to do the same.

I called out to Tyson to follow me. He put down the DVD case he was staring at and stumbled after me, a look of child-like wonder still written on his face. I readjusted the heavy stone in my hands (seriously, how had Tyson been carrying this all day?) and headed for the door. When I opened it, I froze.

Luke was standing in front of me, hand raised into a fist as if he was about to knock. Backbiter was in his other hand, prepared to strike. He quickly lowered it when he saw me.

"Oh, hey. You're back," he said. He looked surprised for a moment, but he quickly masked it. "I… wasn't really expecting to see you again."

He looked like he just rolled out of bed. His sandy blonde hair was all messed up and his eyes were half lidded and groggy. He had a blindfold pulled up against his forehead and wore a pair of fancy silk pajamas. He glanced up and down the hall, as if wary he was being watched.

"I heard some commotion out here, and some heavy footsteps. Thought we had an intruder." He gestured to the shards of ceramic currently sitting at the base of the pedestal Tyson had bumped into. "You drunk or something?" he asked, an eyebrow raised.

"Um, actually—"

Only then did Luke seem to notice the 6' 7" one-eyed giant hovering over my shoulder. He recoiled, his eyes flashing, and suddenly I was yanked forward by my arm and shoved out of the way. I fell onto the carpeted hallway, the head I was holding rolling away and slamming into the wall.

Luke raised Backbiter and prepared to lunge. Tyson screamed.

"Wait!" I cried, scrambling to my feet. Luke hesitated, and Tyson slammed the door shut, locking himself in my room. I anchored myself in the doorway between them. "Don't hurt him," I told Luke.

Luke looked back and forth between me and the doorway, his lips parted and a wild expression on his face. "What?" he asked.

"I found him in New York. His name is Tyson, and he's my half-brother."

The door opened a crack, and Tyson's one eye peered out at us. Luke scowled at him. "Well, what's he doing here?"

"He wants to help us."

He looked at me as if I'd grown another head. "Help us…? N-no! He's a Cyclops, Percy! They can't be trusted. He'll eat you as soon as he gets the chance."

I felt my fists clench involuntarily. I couldn't believe Luke was being so rude. I didn't even think Tyson had the capability to lie, much less attack me while my back was turned.

"What's your problem?" I shot back. "Tyson saved my life. He's completely trustworthy. You said we need recruits, right? Well, here's our first."

Luke levelled a glare at me and held it for a few moments, deciding what to do. His grip on Backbiter tightened, and just when I thought he was about to run both me and Tyson through, his shoulders sagged.

"Fine," he muttered. "He can stay. Cyclopes are great at forging, so I'm sure we can find something for him to do."

I sighed in relief, taking my hand off the pen in my pocket.

"But he won't be living up here!" Luke added. "He'll be down in the regular cabins, where I won't have to see him every morning. Got it?"

I pressed my teeth together. Tyson wasn't that ugly. I wanted to ask Luke what he had against Cyclopes anyway, but I figured now wasn't a good time to push him. Not while we were already on such thin ice. I'd take whatever I could get, and having Tyson stay in the lower cabins was better than not having him here at all.

Luke relaxed a little bit and leaned against the door opposite mine. "So," he began. "Did you… uh… you know…" He made a little stabbing motion with his sword.

"Oh, right."

I stooped over and picked up the stone head where I'd dropped it against the wall. Holding my hands out, I presented it to him like some satanic version of kindergarten show-and-tell.

"Luke, meet my stepfather, Gabe."

* * *

Warily, I approached the golden sarcophagus for the second time that day. The menacing presence that crept up my spine as I got closer was now starting to become a familiar sensation. I could feel Kronos's presence bearing down on me.

Luke took a seat on one of the plush couches in the center of the room, keeping an eye on me. He had been rather insistent that Tyson not come with us when we spoke to the titan king, so I put on a movie for him in my room while we were away. He didn't seem to like Luke much anyways, which seemed perfectly understandable to me considering Luke had nearly introduced him to the edge of a sword, so he was perfectly fine with staying behind.

I put the head down at the bottom of the dais and knelt. Taking a deep breath, I spoke.

"Lord Kronos."

The casket thrummed with power, bathing the room in a golden light.

"I, uh, completed the task you gave me, and brought you the head of the mortal Gabe Ugliano."

It was a little strange talking to a golden box, but I waited patiently for a response. For a moment, the room was silent, and I was worried that Kronos would reject my offering. But then the ground began to rumble, and his voice came from the depths of the earth.

"Hmm… A rather hideous bust, but it does qualify as mortal… I must admit, I had my doubts that you would succeed, but you have laid them to rest. Well done, Perseus."

I bowed my head. "Thank you, my lord."

"Do you know why I asked you to kill a mortal?"

I looked over my shoulder towards Luke, remembering the words he said to me before I left that morning.

"To test my resolve," I said. "You wanted to see if I was fine with getting my hands dirty."

The voice hummed in affirmation like the world's largest subwoofer.

"Yes, merely a test. Contrary to what my children may tell you, I do not hate mortals. As much as I loathe my brother Prometheus for not aiding me in the war to end my father's tyranny, I believe creating humans was the one thing he did right. Unlike the fools on Olympus, I see the value in mankind. Under my reign, the mortals of this realm will see an end to starvation and pestilence, and I will usher in a new Golden Age of peace and prosperity for mankind. This, I promise."

My eyes widened. Ending world hunger? Curing cancer? Establishing world peace? Woah. That was... an enormous promise to make. Could the titan king really accomplish a feat such as that? And if it really was possible, why hadn't the gods done it yet?

"The task I gave you was necessary to assure me of your commitment to our cause and prove that you have the stomach for bloodshed. In the war that is to come, you will face many enemies, mortal and immortal both. It will not be the same as killing monsters, and you must be prepared for it when the time comes. That is why I asked this of you."

I remained silent. I still wasn't comfortable with the fact that I may one day have to fight against other half-bloods. The entire reason why I decided to join Kronos's army was to save them from the gods. Hurting or even killing them would defeat the entire point of why I was here. I hoped it wouldn't come to that.

Kronos's voice continued to pervade the room. "And unlike the gods, I reward those who serve me well. Once you have pledged yourself to me, I will bestow upon you my blessing and reveal secrets the gods have kept from you your entire life."

I glanced up at the sarcophagus once more, my curiosity piqued. "Secrets, sir?"

"I'm sure that by now, you've heard of the Great Prophecy."

My eyes widened, mind reeling. Was it possible that the titan king already knew what the prophecy said? Did Luke know it as well?

"I don't know the details, but I have a feeling it involves me," I said.

"Typical of Zeus, to try and control the Fates by hiding the prophecy from you. In the end, however, it seems he has only sealed his doom by turning you to me. Swear yourself to me, boy, and I promise not to keep matters of such importance from you."

Once again, I turned back to Luke and met his hardened gaze. He nodded, and I steeled myself.

"What should I say, my lord?" I asked the sarcophagus.

Kronos spoke inside my head, his metallic voice sounding like it was echoing off the walls of a massive cavern. I found myself saying the words in unison with him, as if the words were being directly uploaded to my brain.

"I hereby renounce the Olympian gods and swear allegiance to Kronos, lord of time and king of the titans. I will see to it that he rises from Tartarus and reclaims his rightful place as ruler. I will grow and train his army, and will aid his brethren in battle against the Olympians. When the time comes, I will see Olympus razed, and the false thrones of the gods reduced to dust. I swear this on the River Styx."

Thunder shook the hull of the ship. The sarcophagus glowed brightly, and before my eyes, a small chunk of something… fleshy rose from the floor and phased through the lid of the casket. I tried to hide the wrinkled expression on my face, even though I wasn't sure if Kronos could actually see me.

"For every new recruit in my army, a piece of myself returns from Tartarus. You have brought me one step closer to being whole again, and for that I am grateful."

I didn't know how to explain it, but Kronos's voice sounded more… present. Like it wasn't coming from so far beneath the ship anymore.

"Now, I promised to reveal the gods' great secret to you. To give you the answers you seek. But I warn you, boy. You may not like what the prophecy has to say."

I braced myself. This was my one chance to finally hear the prophecy which was apparently so horrible that even Chiron could not tell me. "I have to know, sir," I said evenly.

"Very well. Listen closely, and remember this well:

A half-blood of the eldest gods

Shall reach sixteen against all odds

And see the world in endless sleep

The hero's soul, cursed blade shall reap

A single choice shall end his days

Olympus to preserve or raze."

I was silent for a long time, my brain picking apart each line as my heart hammered against my chest. So, the prophecy really was about me. There weren't any other children of the elder gods in existence that anyone knew of. Thalia had turned into a tree, so I couldn't see how this would apply to her. Did she even age in there? Was she even technically alive?

Tyson… probably didn't count. There were droves of Cyclopes already alive, working for Poseidon in underwater forges. There must have already been plenty that turned sixteen since the prophecy was first uttered, so it couldn't be a Cyclops. That left only me.

I'd reach the age of sixteen… and then I'd die? My soul would be reaped? What kind of a prophecy was that? 'Yeah, you're gonna turn sixteen and make this huge decision that determines the fate of Olympus. Oh, and bee-tee-dubs, you die at the end.'

I tried not to focus too hard on that little detail, but it really isn't easy to distract yourself from the fact that you're living on a timer. I had three years at most..

The only line in the prophecy that I couldn't make any sense of was the one about seeing the world in endless sleep.

"Do you see now why you are so important to our cause? If I have been interpreting the prophecy correctly, a single choice of yours will change the outcome of the entire war. You have sworn allegiance to me, and therefore I will see to it that you are protected at all costs. Rise now, hero, and place your hand on my sarcophagus."

I did as I was told and made my way up the steps of the dais. The air surrounding it seemed frigid and still, as if it was frozen in time. I placed my hand on the lid of the casket and resisted the urge to recoil as a chill ran up my arm. It was colder than ice.

That icy feeling spread throughout my veins, chilling me to my very core. Time seemed to slow around me. I turned toward Luke and watched in astonishment as his eyes slowly drifted shut and reopened seconds later, a blink that lasted impossibly long. Hugging my arms to myself, I stepped away from the dais, and just like that, the frigid feeling left. I steadied myself, feeling like I'd just been trapped in a glacier.

"Do not be afraid, Perseus. I have granted you my blessing, something I do not give lightly. Even Luke, my First Lieutenant, has not had the honor of receiving it. It will protect you in battle. Use it wisely."

When my wits finally came about me, I knelt once more, a residual shiver arcing down my spine. "Th-thank you, sir."

"There is one more thing," Kronos's voice rumbled. "Speak to my grandniece, Hecate. She will have another gift for you."

I found I couldn't speak. I wasn't used to receiving so much attention from immortals. All the gods I had met so far acted like I was an inconvenience to them. Like everything would've been better if I didn't exist. But here, I was valued. Maybe they were only trying to win me over because of the Great Prophecy, but I realized I didn't care. It was more than the gods had done for me, anyhow.

"Luke."

Behind me, Luke got up from his spot on the couch and took a knee beside me.

"Yes, my lord?"

"I leave it to you to continue Perseus's training, alongside your task of growing my army. I trust you will be able to handle both?"

The corners of Luke's mouth curled downwards, but he nodded his head. "You can count on me."

"Good. I grow weary from this conversation and must rest. You are both dismissed."

"Sir," the both of us said in unison.

It didn't register in my mind that I was now officially a member of Kronos's army until we entered the hallway. Luke and I were sworn allies now. The chill that had spread throughout my body was gone, and I found my head clearing. I turned to Luke, grinning.

"Looks like I made the team."

He stared at me for a moment, contemplating. Then he scowled and shouldered his way past me. Unlocking his door, he said, "Meet me on the Promenade at 6am sharp. And don't even think about bringing that Cyclops."

He retreated into his room, and the door slammed behind him.


	10. I Take a Stand Against Underage Drinking

**IMPORTANT NOTE: I made some major edits to the last chapter. If you're coming back to the story after having been caught up, make sure you read the note I left at the top of the last chapter. Enjoy.**

* * *

When I got back to my room, Tyson was sprawled out on the couch, snoring away with a bowl of popcorn balanced precariously in his lap. Disney's _Hercules _was playing on the big screen. I stood there for a while and listened to the soft sounds of the TV. I'd honestly forgotten about that movie up until now, which surprised me. It used to be one of my favorites as a kid.

I remembered relating to Hercules pretty hard. I knew all too well that feeling of belonging somewhere else. I felt it every day at school, and even at home when Gabe was around. I remember feeling like I was meant to do something greater, something that would make everyone, including my _real_ father, proud of me.

But those had just been childish delusions. My life wasn't a Disney movie. Heroes can't save everyone, and families aren't perfect. Facts I'd learned the hard way.

I left a couple of blankets folded up on the couch for Tyson and turned in for the night, feeling like I hadn't slept in weeks.

In the early morning, I showed Tyson to his own cabin, which was in a different section of the ship. The holo-peeps were out and about again, carrying out their various ghostly activities. Tyson wasn't too fond of them. I think he nearly had a heart attack when one of them walked straight through him. I tried to explain that they weren't real and couldn't hurt him, but he didn't let his guard down until we got to his cabin.

It was a pretty standard ocean-view room, nothing special. There was a bunk-bed in the corner next to a porthole window, and beside it an end table with a lamp and alarm clock. A small TV sat on top of a wooden dresser, and across from it was a comfy looking couch.

I felt kind of bad that it wasn't anywhere near as big as my room, but Tyson didn't seem to mind. He excitedly darted around the cabin like a kid on Christmas morning, inspecting all of his new possessions and taking a moment to gaze out of his window.

"Wow," he breathed, his big eye wide in fascination. He turned to me. "This is all mine?" he asked incredulously.

I grinned at him and nodded. The room didn't have much, but it was certainly big enough to fit a Cyclops, and I guessed anybody who'd been living in a cardboard box would be pretty stoked to even have a room. I couldn't believe how easily satisfied the guy was. He was certainly nothing like the greedy Cyclopes of legend.

Glancing at the clock, I realized with a start that I was five minutes late for my meet-up with Luke, and he was definitely someone you didn't want to keep waiting. I left Tyson to get himself situated. He looked a little nervous about being left alone, but he seemed to cheer up when I promised to give him a tour of the ship later on.

The sun was just starting to peek over the horizon when I got to the Promenade. Luke was sitting at one of the tables on the deck, a steaming hot mug of coffee in his left hand and a rather annoyed look on his face.

"You're late," he stated.

"Sorry. I was getting Tyson settled in."

Luke's eyebrows furrowed when I mentioned my half-brother, but fortunately he didn't say anything.

"Come on," he said, wasting no time.

I silently followed him along the ship and into the interior, where we took an elevator up a number of floors to the top. The metal doors slid open to reveal a room full of computers and monitors and a bunch of other nerdy stuff. The navigation room, I figured. I noted with disappointment that there wasn't actually a giant wooden steering wheel directing the ship. Getting to spin one of those was pretty high up on my bucket list.

At the other end of the room in front of a floor-to-ceiling glass window was a tall, slender woman. She wore dark robes that rippled around her like a dense fog, and there was a fur scarf the color of a rainy day wrapped snugly around her neck. A midnight-black labrador retriever dozed off at her feet.

The woman was hunched over some kind of crystal apparatus, cursing and fiddling around with its mechanisms. Light was being projected into the crystal, where it split out into multiple beams as if passing through a prism. The beams of light shone down onto the deck below, each one following a holographic guest around. I quickly deduced that this device was responsible for creating the ghostly passengers. Which meant that this woman working on it was…

"Lady Hecate," Luke greeted her, bowing.

I quickly followed his lead and did the same.

The titaness startled, and the crystal went crashing to the floor where it shattered into tiny glossy pieces, each one casting a reflection on the ceiling and walls like a disco party. The dog woke up with an alarmed "_Woof!"_, and the thing that I had previously thought was a scarf came to life and jumped off her shoulders. It landed on the ground and hissed at us.

"She has a pet weasel?" I whispered to Luke.

"_Polecat,"_ he corrected.

"Urgh!" Hecate's face turned red as she stooped down to sweep the shards off the floor. Her image shimmered like a mirage. For a moment, I could've sworn she had three faces, but then they merged back into one. "To Hades with it all!"

She whirled on Luke, who flinched back, his face pale. "You better have a good reason for interrupting my work, son of Hermes," she said, her voice impatient.

Luke scowled, the mention of his father seeming to break him out of his stupor.

"Lord Kronos instructed us to come here," he told her. "He said you have a gift for us."

Her eyes narrowed as she regarded us. Her gaze rested upon me, and I felt as though she was peering straight into my mind. She pointed a bony finger at me.

"I have a gift for _him_," she said.

She threw her long, black hair back behind her shoulders and reached behind her neck, unclasping a golden chain that the weasel had been covering. From beneath her robe, she produced a beautiful golden amulet. A wavelike pattern lined the edges of the pendant, and in the middle was a large, green gem engraved with an image of a torch. As the light reflected off of it, the torch seemed to blaze, its smoke giving the gem a hazy glow.

"Stand," she ordered.

I did as I was told. The titaness glided forward and wrapped the chain around my neck, clasping it in the back. I stared at the pendant as she stepped away.

"This amulet is enchanted to safeguard its wearer from Mist magic. The Mist is my domain, of course, but there are plenty of gods who have begun to unravel its secrets. Dionysus was quite infamous back in the day for turning young heroes such as yourself into dolphins. Artemis has recently gone on a jackalope spree. As long as you wear this amulet, such magics will not affect you."

First Kronos's blessing, and now this. I was floored, wondering why I was suddenly so deserving of all these gifts. But then I heard my mother's voice in my head, and my manners kicked back in. I bowed to Hecate.

"Thank y—"

She raised a hand to stop me. "Do not thank me," she said. "Kronos asked me to craft this for you, and being his subordinate, I complied. He seems to think you are a valuable asset." Her eyes bored into mine once more, and I felt as if she were trying to pick apart my brain. "I, however, think you are more trouble than you are worth. Now, I must start again from scratch, and the sooner I'm off this gods forsaken ship, the better. Leave me."

I didn't need to be told twice. As grateful as I was for the amulet, Hecate kind of gave me the creeps. I made for the elevator, but Luke hesitated. He turned to Hecate, and for a moment it seemed like he was going to ask something, but then must've thought better of it and followed after me.

As the elevator doors drifted shut, I heard Hecate's brooding voice once more. "Some guard dog you are."

"_Woof._"

Training began. Luke's new training regimen was way harder than anything he ever gave me back at camp. We started with some basic sparring with wooden swords.

We had cleared an area and squared off next to the swimming pool. All the deck chairs and umbrella stands had been moved off to the side, leaving quite a bit of room for us to maneuver around. Luke came at me like a madman.

I was pretty shocked at the raw strength behind his blows. I deflected each of his strikes, but my muscles screamed in protest each time I did. Before, he had been trying to teach me control and efficiency, but now it seemed he was just trying to overpower me. It didn't feel like training at all.

There was only so much you could do with practice swords, though. A few minutes later, cracks began to form in the wood. After a particularly intense horizontal swipe aimed at my midsection, Luke's sword crashed into mine and splintered, scattering wood chips into the pool. Mine wasn't doing much better.

Luke frowned, examining what was left of his sword handle. As I gasped for breath, he calmly strode over to the table where he'd set down his gear and drew Backbiter from its sheath.

"That's enough of a warm up, I'd say. Ready to begin?"

I gulped, getting the sense that Luke wasn't about to hold back just because we were now using real, lethal swords. I tossed my wooden stick aside and nervously uncapped Riptide, listening to the blade elongate. Luke approached, and I eyed his weapon.

It was the third time I'd seen Backbiter, and its aura still made me uneasy. It gleamed in two different colors, one grey, one bronze. There was a perfectly straight line down the middle of the blade where the two materials melded together. Celestial bronze and tempered steel, capable of killing mortals and immortals both.

I sensed a tragedy about the sword. It was cursed. Someone must have died forging it. I couldn't tell you how I knew that, but it was true.

I did my best to steady my breathing and nodded to Luke. I raised Riptide and took a defensive stance. My heart hammered in my chest. It was just training, right? Luke wouldn't hurt me _too_ badly. At least that was what I tried to tell myself.

We'd become good friends over the summer, and he'd even said he considered me to be family. But after I got back to the ship the previous night with Tyson and my stepfather's head, it felt like something changed. Maybe he was mad about my leaving, or maybe he was just grumpy that there was a Cyclops on board. I still didn't know why he despised Cyclopes so much, but that might've explained his foul mood.

Backbiter flashed, and my adrenaline spiked. I thought for sure I was about to be sporting a brand new scar, but then something happened. That icy feeling that crept over me when I touched Kronos's sarcophagus returned. It was the same sensation as the one I felt on the beach with Ares, where the world seemed to take a momentary breath of malice.

Luke's sword came at me in slow motion, a vertical slash from top to bottom that I was able to sidestep with ease. I even had to wait a moment for it to fall to the proper height before I could attempt a disarming maneuver. I wrapped my blade around his hilt and thrust downward, the first move Luke had ever taught me. Backbiter fell to the ground like a leaf from a tree.

Time returned to its normal flow. Luke stared at his now empty hand, devoid of all lethal weaponry. Mouth agape, he looked at me.

"I didn't even see… How did you…"

I stared at the fallen weapon on the floor, just as confused as Luke. How _did_ I do that, exactly? "Um, Kronos's blessing, I think. It distorts time or something."

That was about as near as I could figure. Luke pursed his lips, contemplating. "Again," he said.

He picked up his sword and together, we sparred for a few more rounds, but I wasn't able to get the blessing to activate again. I wondered if there was a cooldown, or if I had to do something specific to activate it that I hadn't noticed before.

By the time we were finished, I was covered in cuts and bruises, but a quick dip in the pool fixed those right up and left me feeling rejuvenated. That energy didn't last too long though. Luke then made me run the perimeter of the main deck until my legs gave out, followed by so many push-ups that I was certain I'd pushed the ship off course a little bit.

The last bit of training was my favorite. It involved sitting in the pool and practicing moving water around. 'Hydrokinesis', as Luke called it. He was curious to see how my abilities worked, but honestly, I'd never given it much thought before. The water had always just done what I wanted it to do in the past. It didn't require much concentration on my part.

But now, as I sat in the pool and morphed the water into different shapes, I felt that practicing like this would really serve to fine-tune my abilities. Luke watched impassively from his hippocampus inner tube, aviator shades covering his eyes and a red-orange drink in his hand.

"More," he said.

"Come again?"

"Pick up more water. I wanna see what your one-rep-max is."

The water that I'd been shaping into hydro-sphinxes and aqua-ferrets fell back into the pool. Taking in a deep breath, I closed my eyes and extended my focus into the water. I could feel it flowing all around me like a sixth sense. There was a familiar tug in my gut, and the water around me started to rise as I activated my Jedi mind powers.

Luke and his floaty began to descend as I lifted the water out of the pool. After a few seconds, the strain on my gut became painful, and I started to lose focus. I managed to drain the pool about halfway before the feeling in my gut dissipated. The water roared as it crashed back down into the basin.

I opened my eyes to see a not-at-all amused Luke. His hair had flattened itself against his forehead and was sopping wet. The glass in his hand was now filled with water.

"You spilled my tequila sunrise."

"You're too young to drink anyway," I pointed out.

"We're in international waters!" He let out a sigh. "Nevermind. Do it again. _Without_ putting me through the spin cycle this time."

I tried to summon up the strength to lift all that water again, but found I couldn't even drain the pool a fraction of what I'd done before. I was left with an overwhelming feeling of fatigue. I couldn't tell you what muscles controlled hydrokinesis, as nothing in particular ached. I just felt weakened and tired.

Luke nodded as if expecting this. "It's probably like strength training. The more you use it, the better you'll get at controlling it. You'll just have to keep exercising your abilities, then. We'll try again tomorrow."

Abandoning his floaty and swimming to the edge, he hefted himself out of the water. He pulled his shades off before shaking out his hair, making it stick up at random angles.

"Come find me later tonight," he said. "The Dove will have some news for us."

I raised a brow, unfamiliar with the name. "The Dove?"

Luke flashed a grin at me that said, 'I know something you don't.'

I was about halfway back to my room, ready for a nice long nap, when I remembered with a groan that I'd promised Tyson I'd show him around.

I knocked twice on his door and waited, but there was no answer. In my bone-tired state, I figured he was just asleep and turned to go back to my room, but then my stupid brain started thinking of all the ways he could get hurt on this ship. What if he wandered out and got lost? Or got spooked by one of the holograms and fell overboard? Or got assaulted by Hecate's weasel?

I had to go find him.

It took me about an hour of increasingly panicked searching, but I finally found him in the last place I would've expected. He had seemed so afraid of loud noises and his own shadow that I didn't think he'd even go _near_ a place as hectic as the engine room, but there he was, hunched over an open panel and tinkering with something inside.

"What are you doing?" I asked over the cacophony of expelled steam and grinding metal.

Tyson startled and smacked his head on the panel above him, leaving a dent in the alloy.

"Ow," he muttered, rubbing the back of his head. He turned and looked at me, and his face lit up. At least someone was glad to see me today.

"Percy!" he said giddily. "I fix engine! We sail much faster now."

I blinked, not even knowing that there had been a problem with it in the first place. I remembered what Luke told me about Cyclopes being great at forging. That must have extended to working with machinery as well. It was funny. Tyson could barely form complete sentences, yet he had the technical know-how of a professional engineer. An idea popped into my mind.

"Hey, how would you like a job, big guy?"

"A job?" he asked, his big eye widening.

"Yeah. Tyson, First Engineer of the _Princess Andromeda._ Sounds pretty good, right?"

He clapped his hands together and nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, I am good at fixing things! When do I start?"

"You already have. And once we start recruiting more people, you can put a crew together to help you out."

Tyson was absolutely brimming with happiness as I led him around the ship, giving him the same tour that Luke had given me two days prior. I made sure to steer clear of the navigation room, but I managed to show him pretty much everything else the ship had to offer. He definitely enjoyed the sauna, but I don't think anything topped the engine room for him.

We ended the tour at the same restaurant I'd eaten at with Luke. We made some idle chit chat for a few minutes as we waited for the staff to come out and take our orders. Then I remembered that the staff was entirely holographic and the magic device that created them was broken. So, we raided the pantries in the kitchen and served ourselves.

I wasn't sure what was considered a healthy, balanced meal for a Cyclops, but Tyson seemed to have no problems finding his own food. I watched in astonishment as he scarfed down a chicken. Yeah, I mean the entire chicken. Raw. Bones and all.

I found some hamburger meat and tried to make myself a double cheeseburger, but I'd never really cooked before so they came out misshapen and burnt, and not at all like the ones at camp. Another skill I'd have to add to my training regimen.

We parted ways after dinner, each of us heading back to our respective rooms and wishing the other goodnight. I was ready to sleep for an entire week at this point, so you can imagine my annoyance when Luke pulled me into his room as I walked by.

"What?" I asked irritably.

That was when I noticed the shimmering image hovering behind him, dead center in the middle of a rainbow made from the mist of the hot faucet. A familiar, pretty girl was looking at me through the mist, but her image was grainy, like it couldn't buffer fast enough and had to drop the resolution.

My eyebrows knitted in confusion. "Silena?"

She smiled. "Hi, Percy."

I glanced back to Luke, perplexed, but he just gave me a crooked sideways grin. "I see you've already met our Dove," he said.

"B-but…" I stammered.

My face must have been quite comical, because Silena was giggling now. "Relax, I'm on your side. I'm not going to tell anyone where you are, if that's what you're wondering."

"But Iris. She's the messenger of the gods. If you told her where to find us, then that means she'll—"

"Arke," Silena interjected.

"Come again?"

"This is an _Arke _Message, not an _Iris_ Message."

I stared at her dumbly. Luke must have finally gotten enough satisfaction out of my visible confusion, because he took that moment to butt into the conversation and explain things.

"Arke is Iris's twin sister, though I'm not surprised you've never heard of her. Not many people have. It's a sad story. During the first Titan war, the two sisters got into a little spat and went their separate ways. Iris chose to serve as messenger for the gods, and Arke became the messenger for the titans. Evidently, Zeus never heard the phrase, 'Don't shoot the messenger,' because when the war was over and the titans defeated, he tore off Arke's wings and cast her into Tartarus. Only recently did her wings regrow, allowing her to escape."

Silena's image flickered. "Ever seen a double rainbow, Percy? I'm sure you have. That really faint rainbow underneath the clear one is Arke, struggling to be reunited with her sister."

"Is that why you look like you're on one of those vintage antenna TVs?" I asked.

She laughed lightheartedly, a pleasant, joyful sound that made my chest feel light. It sort of reminded me of my mom's laugh. "Yes, exactly. Her wings haven't fully healed yet. Once they have, it'll be just like an Iris Message." Her face turned serious. "But I didn't call you guys to give you a history lesson. I have some news."

This caught Luke's attention. He stepped closer to the image, a look of concern on his face. "Good or bad?" he asked.

"Good, mostly. We have a new recruit."

Luke's eyes widened. "You're recruiting people? Silena, you have to be caref—"

"Chill," she said. "I'm a good judge of character. I decided to trust you, after all, didn't I?"

Luke looked like he wanted to argue, but then his face softened. "Who's the new guy?"

"Chris Rodriguez."

Luke rubbed at his chin, a look of recognition on his face. "Chris. He was a member of Cabin 11 for a few years. Unclaimed. I remember how frustrated he was that his godly parent never revealed themselves to him. Decent with any weapon you hand him, and strong enough to give Clarisse a run for her money in arm wrestling. Yeah, he'd make a good addition to our ranks."

"Exactly my train of thought," said Silena.

Chris Rodriguez. I recognized the name, but it was hard for me to put it to a face. I'd only been in Cabin 11 for about a week, and I hadn't had enough time to figure out who was who. I had been mostly preoccupied with keeping people from stealing my Minotaur horn.

"Where do you want to pick him up?" the daughter of Aphrodite asked. "It probably wouldn't be a good idea to sail past camp, especially with the gods in such a tizzy about Percy's disappearance."

A bad idea popped into my head, and I ended up spilling it before I could stop myself. "Tell him to go to Montauk," I said.

Luke turned and shot me a questioning look. I mentally scolded myself. "My mom… she owned a cabin there," I explained. "We had to leave in a hurry the last time we visited, so it should be unlocked, and it's not too far from camp. Chris can meet us there."

I didn't know if I wanted to see that place again. It had been a private getaway for me and my mom. A place where we wouldn't be bothered by Smelly Gabe or anyone else for that matter. The memories of my last trip there were too fresh, too painful. Why hadn't I just suggested any of the other random beaches around Camp Half-Blood?

Silena gave me a tiny, sympathetic smile. "I'll tell him you'll meet him there tomorrow night. Does that work?"

I bit my lip, but nodded. "Tomorrow night it is, then," Luke affirmed. "Is there anything else you wanted to tell us, Silena?"

She shook her head. "There haven't really been any new developments. The year-rounders here know you two disappeared, but Chiron hasn't given them any details about it. That hasn't stopped them from coming up with rumors, though. A lot of them think you're on a top-secret quest to catch the Lightning Thief."

"The Lightning Thief?" I asked, eyebrows raised.

"Mh-hm. It's what they're calling the guy who stole Zeus's master bolt. See, the campers still don't know who took it. As far as they know, the thief is still at large somewhere out there, and judging by the freak weather, they think he's struck at the gods again."

"They're not too far from the truth, then," I said.

Silena's head snapped to the side, her attention fixing itself on something off-screen. Her image fluttered. Her voice fell to a hushed whisper that sounded garbled. "Someone's coming, gotta go. Tomorrow night at Montauk."

She swiped her hand through the image and disappeared.


	11. Montauk Beach

My feet pounded against the shallows, kicking up clouds of sand and seashells in the watery foam. About a football field away, a dark structure stood out against the white sand in the moonlight, the sea extending desperately for it but never quite reaching it. I pulled the lifeboat I'd taken from the ship behind me, dragging it through the push and pull of the waves.

Luke had wanted to come, but I'd insisted on going by myself. He'd thought it a strange demand, given that I asked for Chris, a near stranger to me, to meet me here. I guess I was just hoping to get some alone time before he showed up.

The cabin was derelict and weathered from the freak storms that had been popping up around the Northeast this summer. The door was wide open, revealing a black interior.

The memory of my mom and goat-legged Grover pushing me out the door that night resurfaced. I remembered how the wind howled and carried the spine-chilling roar of the Minotaur on its gusts. I don't think I'd ever been so freaked out in my life, not even when Mrs. Dodds had transformed into a bat-like demon and tried to disembowel me. _That_, at least, hadn't seemed too far out of the ordinary for her.

I tried the light switch, but the room remained shrouded in darkness, the only light coming from the moon filtering in through the windows and door.

The storms had done a number on the place. Scattered haphazardly around the room were the belongings we'd been forced to leave behind. I stumbled around for a little, tripping over broken furniture until I found the day bag I'd packed for our trip. There were a couple pairs of clothes in it, but they were damp and smelled like a swamp, so I left them in there.

I took a step backward and heard something crack underneath my feet. Curious, I bent down and picked up a wooden picture frame, spiderweb fractures now obscuring the photo underneath. Between that and the darkness, it was difficult to make out what the picture was, but after a few moments of straining my eyes, I realized it was my mom. Somehow, I'd never noticed this picture before. She was standing on the beach and smiling, wearing a beautiful blue dress that caught the wind and revealed her rounded figure. She was pregnant.

It must have been sunset, because the shadow of the cameraman extended all the way out into the ocean. It was then that I knew I was looking at a picture of my parents, maybe just weeks before I was born.

I don't know why, but the thought of the all-powerful god of the sea trying to figure out how to operate a camera made me chuckle. A single drop landed on the frame and mingled with the cracks as I stared at my mom's loving gaze. She looked so happy.

How could things have ended the way they did?

I quickly wiped away at my eyes when I heard footsteps coming up the cabin stairs. A light knock sounded on the door frame.

"Um, hello?" a voice called uncertainly into the cabin. "It's Chris. Silena told me to come here."

"Be right there," I said.

I took a moment to collect myself and carefully stowed the broken picture in my bag. Taking one last look at the storm-ravaged cabin that used to be my favorite place in the world, I turned and made my way out the door.

Chris was leaning against the only section of the railing that wasn't broken. Now that I was seeing him in person, I found that I did recognize him. As Luke had said, he was one of the undetermined campers who slept on the floor in the Hermes cabin. He was a Hispanic kid about my age, but way bigger and more muscular. He wore an orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirt, but the sleeves and part of the sides had been ripped off, making it look more like a tank top. The guy looked like he could give Tyson a run for his money in a strongman competition.

"Percy," he greeted me. His eyes glanced over my shoulder. "Is Luke here?"

I shook my head. "He's back on the ship. It's just me. I'm assuming Silena told you everything."

Chris's face hardened, and he nodded. "She did. And I'm ready to join you. I'm through with sleeping in an overcrowded cabin waiting for my father to notice me. I want to do something _fun_, you know? I want to see the world."

I nodded in understanding. It was a dream virtually every demigod shared, but so few ever saw it come true. "Then you'll fit right in," I said. "Come with me."

I descended the cabin steps, our newest recruit falling in behind me. It wasn't until I reached the bottom that I noticed the figure standing in the water. Even through the darkness, I knew who it was instantly. My heart crept up into my throat as I eyed the glowing bronze trident clenched tightly in my father's fist. He stood there, still as a statue, watching us approach. The lifeboat I'd taken here rested in the sand several feet to his side. Our path had been cut off.

For a moment, I couldn't see the _Princess Andromeda _in the water, and I almost had a panic attack. Had Poseidon already sunk the ship while I'd been in the cabin? But that couldn't be true. It had only been about half a mile off the coast. I would've heard if it was being attacked, and wreckage would be washing up on shore by now.

But then the amulet against my chest grew warm, and the ship shimmered into existence exactly where I'd left it. _Mist magic_, I thought. Hecate must have draped a thick layer of it over the ship to hide it from Poseidon.

I froze, holding up a hand to stop Chris. He nearly bumped into me, but then I heard him inhale sharply.

"That's…" he trailed off. The fear in his voice was palpable. I didn't blame him. Poseidon was just as unpredictable as a storm at sea.

"You should get out of here," I told him. "It's me he wants, not you."

"You're actually going to face him? Are you nuts?"

"He's my father. And a god. It's not like I can just run away."

"He'll bring you to Zeus. You'll be branded a traitor and killed."

My heart hammered in my chest, but I knew I didn't have much of a choice. Poseidon wouldn't let me just walk away from him. "Probably," I said. "If you somehow manage to join up with Luke, let him know what happened. And tell him that I'm sorry for leaving again."

My feet were already carrying me forward before Chris could say anything else. Poseidon's face was illuminated slightly by the green energy emanating from his trident's tips. He regarded me impassively as I made my way into the water. The waves rolled against my shins.

I nervously wiped my palms against my shorts, blood roaring in my ears. You know that phrase that teenagers always say when they're about to get into trouble? 'My parents are gonna kill me if they find out about this.' Well, it might have been a bit more literal in my case.

I stopped a few yards away, close enough to easily converse with him but just out of trident-stabbing range. "Father," I greeted him.

Poseidon waited as if expecting me to kneel. When no such action was forthcoming, he glanced towards the cabin where I left Chris.

"You dishonor your mother's memory by bringing your rebellious friends here. Did she not teach you anything about respect?"

My fists clenched. I wanted to point out that Poseidon hadn't exactly shown much "respect" to the cabin, either, if the storm damage was anything to go by, but I held my tongue. He was trying to get a rise out of me. I remembered how I'd turned into an emotional wreck the last time we were face to face, and how I'd nearly lost my temper with him. I remembered well that unpleasant feeling of being stuck in a microwave when his godly power flared on Olympus. Now, we were in his element where he was ten times more dangerous. I couldn't afford to piss him off. I had gotten lucky during my fight with Ares. I wouldn't have the same advantage battling the god of the sea in his own turf.

"Why are you here?" I asked, trying but failing to keep my voice even.

"Isn't it obvious? I have come to talk some sense into my son. What is this foolishness I've heard about you serving my father?"

So he knew. I supposed that should've been a given. Chiron or Mr. D likely informed Zeus the moment they'd gotten the report from the tree nymphs that we were gone, and of course my father would be the first to receive Zeus's fury.

I had to word my response carefully. The _Princess Andromeda _may have been hidden for now, but Poseidon had to know that it was nearby, and there was no doubt he had enough power in his trident to make the USS Maine explosion look like a firecracker. As long as he was here, the _Princess Andromeda_ was in danger. I glanced over at the ship, its lights reflecting off the rolling waves. Why weren't they moving? Luke must've not known what was going on. And even if he did, I wasn't so sure the ship was even fast enough to get away.

I took a sideways glance back at the cabin. Chris was no longer there. Either he'd gone inside the cabin or he'd done the smart thing and ran away. "You know, we were right here at this cabin when the Minotaur started chasing us," I said. "I'm sure Mom must have prayed to you for help, but you didn't protect us."

Poseidon's lips curled downwards. "We've been over this already. Us gods cannot interfere with the lives of mortals. Such divine intervention is against the Ancient Laws that Zeus had us swear to."

I crossed my arms, not buying it. Zeus threatened to kill me. Ares _tried _to kill me. Hades kidnapped and murdered my mom. If those weren't all examples of divine intervention, I didn't know what was. It just didn't add up. "Aren't you interfering right now?" I asked dubiously.

Poseidon's eyes narrowed at me, but then he sighed, his grip on his trident relaxing. "Technically, yes, I am. Ever since you were born, I've been doing my utmost to follow the promises I've made. I knew that one day, the Styx would have its revenge on me for breaking my oath to father no children."

"The day Mom died," I said.

"Mm. I knew my punishment would come, but not when. I dreaded that day for years, and I feared that breaking yet another oath and interacting with you directly would only make it worse. _That_ is why I never came to visit you, never protected you. The more I intervened in your life, the worse I'd be making it for you. But now, I fear I have no other choice. Your actions are far too reckless, and it seems that my relatives do not care to abide by the laws we swore to uphold. Zeus has demanded you be brought before him dead or alive."

Great. So the gods weren't playing by the rules anymore, if they ever really were. Divine intervention no longer held any meaning. Leave it to Zeus to break a law that _he _created. My body was tense now, my hand slowly travelling towards my pocket. "Let me guess. You're here to bring me to him."

Poseidon's eyebrows raised. "Hmm? Oh no, much the opposite. I'm here to _hide _you from him. You must come live with me in my palace beneath the sea."

Any false bravado I had as I squared off with Poseidon disappeared in that instance. My feet faltered, and I felt so off-balance that I was certain the next wave would knock me down.

"...What?" I asked, my voice coming out more as a gasp than a question.

"It is the only place that you'll be safe from my brother. His best trackers will be on the hunt for you. If you stay on the surface, it is only a matter of time until you are found and dragged to Olympus. You may have been found innocent of stealing the bolt, but he has never been known to be merciful a second time. Better that you come with me. Of course, we will have to have some words about your… erm, dubious familial allegiances, but the important thing is you'll be out of danger the time being."

I took a step back. This was wrong. This was all wrong. Poseidon had never cared about me. I had always just been a mistake to him. All my life, I had been hoping and praying that one day, he'd show up on our apartment doorstep and introduce himself. Even just a birthday card in the mail would've made me feel better.

But now that we've met and I decided I wanted _nothing_ to do with him anymore, he suddenly appears and wants to be in my life? He wants me to come _live_ with him? That… that wasn't fair. The worst part of the whole situation was that part of me wanted to accept. Some buried little piece of me secretly wanted to follow Poseidon into the depths of the ocean where the other gods and titans wouldn't be able to find me, where I'd be able to live without the pressure of the Great Prophecy on my back. But that couldn't happen.

"No," I said, my voice barely loud enough to carry over the crashing waves.

A single brow raised on Poseidon's forehead. "What did you say?"

"I said, no!" I hadn't meant to raise my voice, so the volume surprised me just as much as it did my father. "I'm not coming with you. I... I can't." I steeled myself for what I was about to say next. "Don't you get it? I'm not on your side anymore. I've renounced the gods and sworn my allegiance to Kronos."

"Don't be foolish, boy—"

"I've sworn it on the River Styx."

Thunder clapped across the shore, rolling over the ocean like a tidal wave. As it faded away, silence replaced it. The sea became motionless. The air was still. Then—

"You've done _WHAT?!_"

Poseidon's voice struck my ears like a hammer on an anvil. The ocean pounded the shores. Gusts of wind whipped sand around the beach like a sandstorm. The waves buffeted me, and it was all I could do to remain standing. Poseidon's trident had flared up with some kind of green energy, revealing on his face a portrait of rage so terrifying that it rivaled Medusa's gaze. I couldn't move or think.

Poseidon swept his trident in an arc in front of him, and time slowed. I was in the air, the water blasting me backwards in slow motion. I blinked, trying to right myself, but my body felt like it was falling through quicksand. I landed hard on the beach, the air escaping my lungs as the world began moving normally again. Poseidon slogged forward as I rolled over and attempted to spit the sand out of my mouth. Suddenly, he was standing over me, and I threw an arm up to defend myself from the next blow. None came.

"Of all the foolish, reckless, _stupid_ things you could have done, you swore an oath on the Styx?" he asked incredulously. "Haven't you learned how dangerous such a vow is? A son should not repeat his father's mistakes. Did your mother's death teach you _nothing_?" he asked incredulously. His chest heaved and his body trembled with anger. The raw power he gave off radiated intensely against my skin.

Regaining my breath, I propped myself up in the sand and glared at him. "Believe me, I know better than most," I shot back, "thanks to _you_. Tell me, did the Great Prophecy even cross your mind when you decided to break your oath?"

Around me, the waves pounding at the shore began to subside, and the furious winds died down. My father stared down at me, stunned.

"Did you know I would die at sixteen when you decided to have me?" I pressed on. The god of the seas remained silent, pain and shock growing more and more evident on his face.

"Yeah, that's right. I know all about the Great Prophecy now," I explained. "It was the first thing Kronos told me after I pledged myself to him. Something as life-changing as that… How could everyone keep that from me? How could _you _keep that from me?"

Poseidon swallowed. "I… Chiron was going to tell you when you were ready."

I almost laughed, it was such a predictable answer. "And when, exactly, would that be? Next year? The day I turn sixteen? Or maybe never?"

"When you were mature enough to accept any outcome of the prophecy, including, perhaps, your death."

For a moment, neither of us said a word. Only the sounds of the beach broke our silence. Slowly, I stood and brushed the sand off of my clothes.

"I'm going to make a choice to preserve or raze Olympus when I turn sixteen." I met Poseidon's gaze once more. "Maybe you should have considered that when you decided to push me away and keep me in the dark."

Poseidon's eyes darkened as if a storm had covered them. "You dare threaten us? Think about what you are saying, Perseus. Whatever you think us Olympians are, the titan king is ten times worse."

I shook my head. "You're lying. He promised to bring prosperity to humanity."

"He speaks in half-truths and riddles, then. You must be discerning about what you choose to believe. My father isn't called The Crooked One for nothing."

"I'll choose to believe whatever I want to. Every god I've met so far has either tried to kill me or use me as a pawn. Kronos is the only one who has shown me any respect or kindness. I'd side with him over you any day of the week."

We held each other's gaze as the impact of my words sunk in. I meant them, too. It didn't matter that my father had finally grown a spine and wanted to protect me. It was far more likely that he simply wanted to gain a bargaining chip against his brother rather than having any motivation to save me, and it didn't seem that he was about to extend his oh-so-gracious offer to Tyson, either. I wondered if he'd even know who I was talking about if I brought him up. No, it was far too little, and far too late for that. I watched his face as it ran through a gamut of emotions before it finally settled on grief, as if I were already dead to him.

He looked to be trying to swallow a lump in his throat. "It seems you cannot be swayed," he said forlornly. "Alas, it is too late anyways. The Styx will hold you to your oath, and if you break it… well, there are things worse than death. Perhaps it would be more merciful to bring you before my brother after all."

I crossed my arms. "And then what? I'd be executed and you'd go back to not having kids again? Do you really think that'll work better the second time?" I knew that every word I said was just digging my grave another inch deeper, but for some reason I couldn't stop myself. If there's anything I learned from my quest this summer, it's that prophecies don't work like that. It's not some hedge that you can keep trimming down whenever it gets overgrown. No matter how much you try to control it, it'll come true eventually. Perhaps it won't happen for another few years, or a few centuries, but eventually a child of the elder gods will reach sixteen, and the events they tried to delay will be worse for it. That's how it went in all the stories.

In one fluid motion, Poseidon hefted his trident and levelled it at me. I tensed. "Do not presume to understand the Fates, boy. We Olympians have reigned for millenia and survived every trial thrown our way. This too shall pass."

Riptide was in my hands, its soft glow paling in comparison to the energy given off by the trident. I knew I didn't stand a chance against my father, not with my level of training. I couldn't even lift up a pool of water. Poseidon could command the entire sea. But that didn't mean I'd go down without a fight.

I was so fixed on Poseidon as he prepared himself to blast me that I didn't even notice the looming shadow in the water growing closer and closer. Now, if you've never heard a cruise ship horn from up close before, imagine sticking your head straight into the bell of a tuba and having a tone-deaf Superman blow into it with all their might, and you might be able to begin to imagine how loud this horn was. Pairing that with the horrifying visage of Princess Andromeda's figurehead piercing its way out of the darkness, I must've jumped six feet into the air as the blast reverberated across the beach.

The bad news was that I temporarily couldn't hear anything. The good news was that Poseidon's attention was no longer on me, but rather on the million-ton chunk of floating metal that was now barrelling up the shallows towards us at speeds that shouldn't have been achievable by a cruise ship.

I prepared myself to run (though I knew there was no hope that I'd be able to get out of the way in time) when a glowing rift of red/black energy appeared next to me and expanded. A portal. I wasted no time in throwing myself through it.

The next thing I knew, I was on the floor of the navigation room, a black labrador happily licking my face. Shooing the dog away, I looked up to see Luke at the helm of the ship, a crazed look on his face. Hecate was sitting off to the side in a bolted down chair, holding onto its arms for dear life. The crystal apparatus she'd been working on was once more in pieces at her feet. Her ferret's head was poking out of her robe, the hairs on its head standing on end.

"Percy, you made it!" came an excited voice, and I had to do a double take when I saw Chris holding out a hand to me.

"Chris? How—"

"Everybody grab onto something!" Luke yelled with maniacal glee.

Chris pulled his hand back before I could take it and dived for the first solid thing he could find, leaving me stranded in the middle of the floor.

Suddenly, the entire ship shook and decelerated instantly, and I tumbled forward directly into the navigation console where my back collided with a _SMACK_. The dog wasn't far behind and smashed into me from the front, knocking the air out of my lungs for the second time that night. I was going to be very surprised if I didn't have any bruised ribs after this.

After a few seconds, the ship ground to a halt, leaving the room quiet except for the creaks and groans of the hull. After a few seconds of stunned silence, a voice crackled inside Luke's walkie-talkie.

"We hit him!" It was Tyson. "Meanie Poseidon got run over!"

Luke let out a big sigh and picked up his radio. "10-4, good buddy. Over and out."

He set down the walkie-talkie, but it crackled to life again. "I am your buddy?" Tyson's giddy voice carried through the room.

Ignoring him, Luke turned to me, a sideways smirk on his face. "Bet your glad you made me stay behind, aren't you?"

Hecate shot to her feet, face red as a tomato. She advanced on Luke, whose smile slowly turned into a look of fear. "Are you _insane?!_" she shrieked, and once again, I could see three faces instead of one. Three pairs of eyes narrowed dangerously at Luke.. "You could've killed everyone in here! And who knows how much damage you've done to the ship?"

Luke raised his arms to defend himself. "Relax!" he said placatingly. "It's fine, everything's fine. I mean, probably. Midas told me this ship was built to be able to withstand attacks from the deadliest sea monsters. I'm sure scraping up against the shore didn't damage it too much."

Tyson's voice carried through the walkie-talkie once more. "Captain, fire in engine room!"

He gave Hecate a sheepish grin as he stepped out from underneath her withering gaze. He grabbed the radio and growled, "Well, then put it out!" before angrily slamming it back onto the table. He gazed down at the beach through the large windows of the room.

"You'd better hope that Cyclops works quickly," Hecate said. "Poseidon is powerful. A hit such as this won't keep him down forever."

"He just got pancaked by a cruise liner," Luke retorted. "If a blow like that doesn't buy us enough time to escape, then we were doomed from the start."

The dog was beginning to make itself comfortable in my lap when I interjected. "Um, so can someone fill me in on what exactly just happened?"

Hecate's eyes narrowed at me, and I was reminded just how uncomfortable her gaze made me. "We were hoping you'd be able to tell _us_ that, young hero. Why, exactly, was your father there?"

You would have had to be deaf not to hear the suspicion in her voice. Luke glanced between the two of us curiously, and I was suddenly aware of what my encounter with Poseidon on the beach may have looked like to the titaness, especially since I'd insisted on going alone.

"This was my mother's cabin," I explained quickly. "It's where she and Poseidon first met. I… I should've anticipated that he would be here, but I swear I didn't set this up."

She continued to regard me coldly, her overbearing presence making me feel like I was being scrutinized by an entire jury. After a moment, though, the tension fell from her expression and she sighed. "I sense you are telling the truth. I felt something was wrong mere moments after you left the ship. I mentioned this to Luke, and he opened up a portal to the beach. Through it stepped this one." She gestured toward Chris, who was leaning against the elevator door frame now, looking a bit queasy.

"I told them what was happening," he said, holding a hand to his stomach. "How you had gone to confront Poseidon. I told Luke what you'd asked me to tell him, and then he got this weird glint in his eye, and, well… you know the rest."

I gulped, remembering how my stomach had nearly crawled into my throat as the cruise ship steamrolled towards me.

"Those portals are really handy," I said to Luke.

"Yeah, well, Hermes is the god of travellers, so I guess that's one thing I can thank my dad for."

A tremor shook the ship, and the four of us looked at each other nervously. The dog's head lifted from my leg and tilted to the side. Luke pressed the button on the radio. "Er, Tyson? Was that you?"

A couple seconds passed before he answered. "No. Still putting fire out. Almost done."

A second tremor rattled the hull. Then a third. We were being pushed down the beach, inch by inch.

"Poseidon," Hecate breathed. "He's trying to push the ship off of him."

"He's already regained consciousness?" Luke asked incredulously. Chris looked like he was going to be sick.

"Fire is gone! Engine ready!" said the radio.

Luke pulled down on a lever and pressed some buttons on the navigation console. "Full reverse!" he shouted.

The ship groaned to life, the section still in the water straining to back away from the beach.

"Come on, come on, faster!" He smashed his fist onto the console, and surprisingly, the ship seemed to pick up speed.

Soon enough we had reversed out of the shallows and were back in the open sea. I shoved the dog off my lap, eliciting an indignant whine, before standing and making my way over to Luke, hoping against hope that Poseidon was too weakened by the blow to pursue us. Luke was staring out the window at something on the beach. I sidled up next to him and followed his gaze, and my heart fell.

Down on the beach, so small that he seemed like an ant, my father sat amongst the wreckage of what used to be my mom's cabin, the waves rushing to fill the indent the ship had left behind.

I sat down against the wall and unzipped my bag, staring at the broken picture I took from the cabin, the very last thing I had of my mom.

* * *

**Not gonna lie, this chapter was kind of hard to write. I knew I wanted Percy to confront Poseidon, just to show there was no going back now, but their conversation feels like it came off as a bad soap opera. Oh well. I hope you enjoyed Luke's brief descent into madness.**


	12. The Swiss Cheese Plan

After our close encounter with Poseidon and nearly being sent to our watery graves, we decided it was time to get the hell out of dodge. New York was a hot zone for god activity, and we knew we'd already overstayed our welcome.

Over the next few months, we sailed south along the coastlines, hopping from port to port along the way. Apparently, Kronos had been working overtime down in Tartarus, calling out to monsters and invading dreams, because with every stop we made, dozens of new recruits joined us. Giants wielding massive clubs, beautiful women with white-as-snow skin and fiery hair, and hounds the size of pickup trucks were just a few examples of the strange assortment of creatures now residing on our ship.

And of course, there were the demigods. Some of them were young, not old enough to have gone to camp yet but experienced enough to know they weren't like normal mortals. There were older demigods as well. These half-bloods had already "graduated" from camp, being deemed fit enough to survive on their own but ending up disgruntled with their lot in life. But most who joined us were somewhere in the middle like Chris, Luke, and I. They'd been to camp, seen all that it had to offer, and realized it did nothing to fix the core problem demigods faced on a daily basis, only treated its symptoms. Some were children of major gods; others were sired by minor deities. But no matter their age or their parentage, all of them had one thing in common: they had a bone to pick with Olympus.

With every monster and demigod that joined, Kronos grew stronger. I could begin to feel his presence on the ship, an aura so haunting that it made me shudder thinking about what he must've gone through down in Tartarus.

Most of the new recruits, including Chris, ended up living in the general cabins across the ship from where Luke and I were. Tyson didn't seem too thrilled about being neighbors with a loud, clumsy Laistrygonian, and for that reason, we hung out in my room most of the time. He told me he'd tried to recruit some of the other giants into joining his staff, but they turned out to be way too uncoordinated to work with machinery and ended up breaking more things than they fixed.

When that plan fell through, Tyson was approached by a "dog-fishy". Telekhines, as I later learned. They were creatures that had the faces of dogs, with long, black snouts and pointy ears. Their bodies were sleek and black, and sharp claws extended from the fingers of their human-like hands. The strangest thing about them, however, was their feet, which were half-flipper. It was as if evolution had just decided to abandon its project halfway through their transition from sea to land.

As it turned out, these creatures were legit professional forgers, talented enough to give even the Cyclopes a run for their money. Some of the younger ones joined Tyson's crew, helping him maintain and improve the ship, while the older ones set up shop down in the cargo hold, building a makeshift forge for the crafting of weapons and armor.

We had the beginnings of a true army, and with every passing day, the ship began to feel more and more like a military base. I couldn't see us taking down any gods anytime soon, but it was progress.

As for me, my daily routine consisted of mainly three things: eating, sleeping, and training. Luke was pretty much my personal trainer. He kept me on a strict diet (no soda or excessive sugar, which was kind of a bummer) and drilled me every day until I was ready to pass out from exhaustion. The results were pretty easy to see in the mirror. Over my first summer at Camp Half-Blood, I'd gone from being small and scrawny to actually having a decently athletic build, but now I looked like a full-on Olympic swimmer. If I was going to be the hero of the prophecy, I guessed it was important to look the part.

After a couple of months, I had become an expert in swordplay. Luke taught me everything he knew, and after lots of practice, I finally got to a level where I felt we were just about equals. Being much older than me, he still outmatched me in strength and intuition, but I was able to win a few sparring matches here and there without getting high off of water.

The area of training that I'd made the most progress in, however, was hydrokinesis. Luke had been right in that it was sort of like strength training. It took a while to make progress at first, but slowly and steadily I was able to increase the volume of water I was able to work with at once. I don't know what muscle was responsible for enabling my powers, but whatever it was, it must've been bulging by this point. I was able to raise the entire pool like it was just another deadlift, hundreds of thousands of gallons of water rushing around me at once.

Water bending wasn't the only thing I could do. One night, Tyson and I were hanging out in my room when a particularly strong storm hit the ship. It was so powerful that for a little while, I was afraid Poseidon had found us. The ship violently lurched back and forth, things were flying off my shelves, and Tyson was absolutely terrified. I tried to calm him down, saying it was just a thunderstorm, but my words didn't seem to get through to him. When I saw his face turn green right next to my movie collection, I remember really, really wanting the storm to stop. And to my surprise, it did. All at once. I'd never seen a storm clear up that quickly.

After a momentary bout of confusion, I remembered what Chiron had called my father the night I was claimed. _Stormbringer._ It hadn't occurred to me until then that Poseidon's command over water may not have been the only thing I inherited from him.

The next day, I tried something different during my practice exercises. I looked up towards the sky, imagined the wind whipping through my hair, the raging of the seas and angry claps of thunder rolling across the waves. I felt a familiar tug in my gut. The puzzled look Luke gave me quickly turned to astonishment when the sky directly over the ship darkened, bombarding the deck with heavy rain and gusts of wind, sending deck chairs and umbrella stands flying.

I wouldn't be commanding hurricanes any time soon, but I had to admit, being able to control the weather over my head was pretty freaking cool. It made me curious to see what other powers I had inherited.

The one thing I really couldn't wrap my head around was how I'd activated Kronos's blessing before. I remembered the icy feeling of everything slowing on the beach when I'd fought Ares, as if my limbs had been glued to the air itself. It had felt similar when I touched Kronos's casket, and again during my sparring with Luke. Each of those times had been out of my control or pure reflex, and I couldn't figure out how to replicate it.

We spent the winter in the Gulf of Mexico, basking in the warm air while New York froze. I'd never been to the beach in January before, and boy, was I missing out. Sunbathing probably wasn't high on Kronos's list of productive tasks, but if he had a problem with our leisurely activities after training each day, he didn't voice it.

Spring came, and Luke began acting strangely. He seemed distracted during our sparring matches, his mind lying elsewhere. He made careless mistakes, and I'd very nearly maimed him one time when I'd expected him to block and he didn't. It got to the point where winning didn't even feel like an accomplishment anymore, and whenever I asked him what was up, he'd just tell me not to worry about it.

After training, I'd often see him retiring early to his room, carrying a stack of books on what appeared to be magical medicine. So much for not being the scholarly type. I wasn't sure why he was particularly interested in that subject, but then again, he'd been talking to Kronos a lot more than usual, so it might've been something he was ordered to do.

Whatever the reason, it was clearly taking a toll on him. Purplish bags grew under his eyes, and he seemed like he was in a bad mood all the time, like a college student who hadn't had their morning coffee.

One day, as I was passing by his room, his door flew open and he barged out so quickly that he almost ran into me. There was a victorious glint in his eyes and a crazed smile on his face, and I began to wonder when he'd last slept.

Just when I was about to open my mouth to say something, he told me to hold that thought and dashed into the room with the golden sarcophagus, leaving me scratching my head. It wasn't until a few hours later that I finally learned why he'd been behaving so abnormally.

* * *

"The Golden Fleece?" I asked, trying to remember how the myth went. Something about a golden flying ram that was sacrificed to Zeus.

"Yes." Luke stabbed at a piece of meatloaf and brought it up to his mouth. The ship's cafeteria was pretty crowded thanks to all the recruitment we'd been doing. Demigods were lined up at the buffet line, grabbing whatever food looked tasty, while the monsters chowed down on some kind of mystery meat. I thought it better not to ask what it was.

Chewing, Luke continued. "I read an account of Jason and the Argonauts that stated the Fleece has powerful magical healing properties. The island it had been resting on, Colchis, had been a thriving paradise up until Jason took it."

I paused for a moment, pondering the implications of such an item. "So, if we were able to retrieve this Fleece for Kronos…"

"...Then we could use it to speed up his healing process," Chris finished for me. He slapped his hands down on the table excitedly, rattling the silverware and nearly toppling my Coke. "He could be fully reformed by this time next year!"

Luke looked amused at Chris's enthusiasm. The two of them had become fast friends ever since the night we'd recruited Chris. The hispanic teen had been in the Hermes cabin for a couple of years before I first arrived at camp, so they'd had plenty of time to get to know each other beforehand. Like a lot of the other people in the Hermes cabin, he was an undetermined camper, but judging from his mischievous features and talent for lockpicking, I wouldn't have been surprised if the two of them were brothers after all.

"Yes and no," Luke said. "With the Fleece, the titan king _could_ be resurrected more quickly, but that also could potentially throw off his whole war plan. See, Kronos isn't the only one reforming. His brothers are trapped in Tartarus as well, and it could be years until they escape from the pit. Our forces are still relatively scattered and weak, and without proper backup from the titans, it would be dangerous for Kronos to reform too quickly. We'd risk drawing unwanted attention from Olympus. So, instead of jumping the gun and getting blown away, Kronos and I came up with a better alternative."

"And that is?"

He set down his silverware and wiped a napkin across his mouth before sitting back in his chair, looking content and quite pleased with himself. "We're going to add another piece to the chessboard. Another chance to control the prophecy."

Chris and I shared a confused look. "What do you mean?" he asked, his eyebrows furrowed.

"Thalia," he said, and my eyes widened in recognition upon hearing the name of the hero of Half-Blood Hill. "Her spirit is still alive in that tree, and I believe the Fleece is strong enough to undo Zeus's magic and pull her out of it."

I stared at Luke, wondering if such a plan could really work. "But wait… Didn't you say Thalia was turned into a tree five years ago? If it's really been that long, then she'd be over 16 years old by now, right? No longer eligible for the prophecy."

Luke shrugged. "Hard to say. Trees take a lot longer to age than humans. She might have grown more slowly than you and I while she was in there."

I wasn't sure what to think. I've had some pretty crazy ideas in the past, but even I had to admit this was a bit of a stretch. The plan was risky enough as it was, and it was being staked on a lot of assumptions, but if Kronos had given him the O.K., then I supposed I could get behind it.

Not to mention, I was intrigued by the idea of meeting another child of the Big Three. Many demigods came from broken homes or were hounded by monsters all the time, so I was able to relate to most of them pretty well, but there wasn't really anyone with whom I could share the burden of the Great Prophecy. Ever since I first heard it, there was this sort of crushing heaviness that would press down on my chest every now and then when I remembered those harrowing lines.

I didn't like to talk about it. I didn't want Luke to think I was weak. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely did _not_ want anyone to die in my place, but it just would've been nice to have someone I could relate to more easily, someone who understood the immense pressure. Annabeth had once said Thalia and I would've either been best friends or worst enemies. I hoped it was the former.

One thing still bothered me though. The Great Prophecy had been rather ambiguous when it came to the outcome of the hero's decision. _Olympus to preserve or raze. _As Luke said, it was hard to know Thalia's age, but if she was older than me, then why would Kronos want to risk having her be the child of the prophecy over me? I'd already sworn myself to him. Sure, Thalia had plenty of reasons to be pissed at her father and the other Olympians, but how deeply did her anger reside? Would she be willing to take the plunge like Luke and I had?

"She'll join us," Luke said with absolute conviction, as if reading my thoughts. "I know it."

I studied him for a moment, surprised. I'd never heard anyone sound so sure of something in my life. He stated it as if it were fact, like it had already come true. It almost made me believe him, but some part of my mind remained skeptical. I realized Luke must've held more sway over his decision-making progress than I had originally thought for Kronos to approve of this risk.

Another thought caused a pit to form in my stomach. It was either that, or the titan king still didn't quite trust me yet. He wanted a mulligan in case I didn't turn out the way he wanted me to.

Chris sat forward, rubbing his hands together eagerly. "So where is this Fleece? Let's go get it!"

The smirk on Luke's face curled downwards. "Well, that's the thing. We're not sure."

"Oh," Chris said, sinking back into his chair, disappointment evident on his face. "Well, how are we going to find it, then?"

"_We _don't have to do anything. Camp Half-Blood will find it for us."

"...and why would they do that?"

Luke's eyes bored into both of us. "They'll have to, if they want their camp's boundaries to continue to protect them. Thalia's spirit is what strengthens the borders, keeping monsters and mortals out. If we were to, say, poison the tree, the campers would have no choice but to embark on a quest for something that could heal it. And that something would have to be the Golden Fleece."

I stared at him, mouth agape, wondering if I'd heard him right. "Seriously?" I snapped. "You'd poison your friend? What if the quest fails, and she dies?"

He glared at me, his scar taking on a dark shade of red. Combined with the dark bags under his eyes, he looked downright terrifying. "You call what she has right now a life? If the tree dies, then it dies. But if this _works_..."

He trailed off, but I got his point. There really was a lot we could gain from this. But I still had plenty of reservations.

"Ok, but what about the campers?" I asked, my arms crossed against my chest. "If the borders go down, a lot of them are going to get hurt."

"Pfft, it's a freaking hero camp," he countered, lazily waving his hand through the air. "They train to fight monsters every day. They'll be fine for a week or two."

"How can you be so indifferent about this?" I demanded. "We still have friends there. Silena, your brothers and sisters… What if Annabeth is back at camp already?"

I glanced at Chris, and to my relief he seemed just as concerned as I was. There had to be people he cared about at camp, too.

Luke pinched the bridge of his nose, his eyebrows curled downwards in annoyance. "Look, Thalia's been protecting that damn camp for 5 years now. It's thanks to her that no monsters have gotten in. Many of the campers, including _Annabeth_, are only alive because of her. They _owe_ her for that. I think they can sacrifice a week or two of safety to repay that debt." He sighed, and his eyes softened. "And besides, it's like I said. They'll be _fine_. Trust me, they can handle themselves. Plus, they'll have Chiron and Mr. D there."

We sat in silence for a moment, Luke waiting expectantly for more protests. I stared at him, stunned. I really hadn't thought about Thalia like that. Every day that I had stayed at camp, I guess I'd kind of taken for granted that I could train without monsters sneaking up on me. I never really thought about how I was only able to sleep soundly at night because of her sacrifice. I began to see it from Luke's perspective. If there was even a sliver of a chance we could save her, shouldn't we try to take it?

And he had a point about Chiron, who was pretty much a one-man army by himself (or a half-man/half-horse army), but I knew it would be a cold day in Hades before Mr. D ever lifted a finger to help a camper.

But still, Luke seemed to be under the impression that the camp was in debt to Thalia for her sacrifice, but the reason she'd stayed behind to take on so many monsters by herself was so Annabeth, Luke, and Grover could make it into the camp. If anyone indeed owed their life to Thalia, it would be Luke.

Chris sat forward once more, splayed fingers rubbing at his eyes. "So let me get this straight," he said. "We're going to poison a tree, which may or may not trigger a quest for a magical cure that _might _just happen to be the Golden Fleece, all in the hopes it heals the tree so well that it spits Thalia out? Did I miss anything?"

"We have no guarantee the camper's quest will even be a success," I chimed in helpfully. The plan was so full of holes, it might as well have been Swiss cheese.

Luke threw his hands up exasperatedly. "Alright! I get it! So it's not the best plan," he conceded. "It might not even be a good plan, but it's all we have. If you have something better, I'm all ears."

I thought for a moment before an idea struck me. "Why don't we just sneak into camp and consult the Oracle ourselves? You and I both have experience with quests. We'd make a great tag-team, and I'd rather not leave it up to random campers who might fail."

Luke nodded as if he was expecting me to ask that. "Normally, I'd agree with you, but we declared ourselves for Kronos, remember? The camp's borders won't let us back in. The only way we'd be able to even get to the Oracle is by, once again, poisoning Thalia's tree and weakening the boundaries. And by that point, the camp will be on full alert. Much safer for us to let the campers get the quest themselves."

Chris and I shared a look with each other, but we remained silent. I wasn't entirely happy with the details of the plan. It felt cowardly and backstabbing to put the entire camp in danger like that. Camp was supposed to be the only safe place in the world for us demigods. Taking that away from them, even if it was for a good cause, was wrong.

But we didn't have the first clue as to where to find the Fleece, and I was out of ideas.

"Fine," I surrendered. "I'll do it your way. Chris?"

The guy was staring at the table so fixedly I thought he'd burn a hole straight through it. After a moment, his expression relaxed. "Alright," he said. He turned to Luke. "You're right. Cla — er, the campers can take care of themselves. I'm in."

Luke grinned, looking pleased. He clapped his hands together. "Fantastic. First, we'll need to get the poison, and there's only one substance in the world strong enough to poison a tree as large as this one. And you two will be helping me get it." A tired yawn escaped his lips, and he checked his watch. "But not tonight. We'll go first thing tomorrow morning. In the meantime, get some sleep," he finished.

"It's 7:30," I informed him, as if he didn't just check his watch a second ago.

"Right, bedtime."

* * *

**I'm not sure if I said this yet, but I appreciate all of the reviews, and it means a lot to know that you guys are enjoying this. I know my updates can be kind of slow so I appreciate you all bearing with me. Now to answer a few questions:**

**The8horcrux:** _**So is Percy never going to turn good again? Is this going to be a tragedy? **_**Percy is going to be constantly fighting with himself, trying to reconcile his own morals with what Kronos wants him to do. I don't think Percy considers himself to be 'good' or 'bad' right now, just trying to do the right thing in an increasingly confusing world. I haven't planned too far ahead, so even I have no idea how this story will end yet. All I can say is keep reading!**

**BlackholesA: **_**So is this going to be one story? Or multiple stories? Can we have a campers pov? **_**I kind of want to follow the main story as much as possible, so I'll likely have continuous stories for The Sea of Monsters, the Titan's Curse, etc. That's the idea anyway, but I haven't really planned too far in advance, so anything could happen.**

**As for your third question, I kind of wanted to ask for more opinions on this. Originally, I was planning on keeping this story Percy POV only, and it's been easy to do so far since nothing major has happened at CHB yet. But this story is following the SoM, so Annabeth and Clarisse will have to be included eventually. I think the best way to do this would be to have Annabeth POV chapters. I know some people can't stand POV switching, so I wanted to get some thoughts on this before I start writing them. Thanks!**


	13. We Meet Apollo's Arch Nemesis

I had a nightmare that night. I was standing in what looked to be a little beach town. The street was lined with boarded-up tourist shops and surfboard rental places. Wind ripped at the palm trees lining the center of the street, and rain pummeled the sidewalks. About a block away, past a row of hibiscus bushes, the ocean churned. A couple of surfers were out with their boards, trying to catch the perfect wave.

Palm trees. Hurricanes. People surfing in storms. We had to be in Florida. Though it didn't make much sense. We had just sailed past Florida, and there'd been no signs on the radar of a huge storm like this.

Over the howling wind, I could hear hooves clattering against the pavement. I turned and saw Grover running for his life. His fur and hair were wet and caked with sand like he'd just come from the beach. He panted heavily as he clopped past me. I called out to him, but he didn't seem to hear me. He was muttering to himself, "Have to get away. Have to warn them."

The wind bent the palm trees nearly to the ground. Back towards the beach, I could hear a bone-rattling growl. The surfers wiped out and made a beeline for the shore. A dark shadow emerged from the ocean and began lumbering up the sand. Whatever it was, it was huge. It cursed as it swatted away a streetlamp, sending a shower of sparks into the air.

Grover ran past a bunch of pink and yellow stucco buildings, terrified of whatever was chasing him. He turned a corner and stopped abruptly. He'd hit a dead-end courtyard full of boarded-up shops. There was no time to turn back. The massive shadow loomed just around the corner. The wind blew the door to one of the shops open, and Grover dived in. I couldn't read the sign, but judging from the wares inside, it looked to be a bridal boutique. Grover hid behind a rack of wedding dresses.

The thing that had been chasing Grover stepped in front of the store, lightning outlining its figure through the windows. I gagged on the stench the monster gave off — a sickening combination of wet sheep wool and rotting meat and that sour body odor that only monsters have. The thing stopped and smelled the air, its snorts just as loud as the whistling wind. Then it moved on.

Silence except for the pounding rain. A minute passed, and Grover's trembling lessened. He began to move out from behind the rack when the front of the store exploded and a monstrous voice bellowed, "_MIIIINE!"_

I sat bolt upright in my bed, certain I could still hear the monster's roar. I ran to my porthole window expecting to see lightning illuminating the stormy grey sky, but all I could see were vast expanses of blue. Seagulls circled overhead, eager to snatch up some easy grub from the ship's cafeteria. I could see a stretch of land in the distance narrowing in on the sea until it met a river delta. My bearings told me we were pulling into Delaware Bay, nowhere near Florida.

Tyson's hard work on the engines had paid off a little too well. Grover was too far away for us to help.

My head spinning with worry, I got dressed as quickly as I could and went looking for Luke. He was out on the main deck when I found him, giving a few sword-fighting pointers to Chris, who looked like he was struggling to keep up. A couple other demigods and a handful of monsters were standing around them in a circle, watching.

I still wasn't used to that, just casually hanging out around monsters. The ones on the ship weren't hostile, and it turns out some of them can actually be pretty friendly when you are on the same side. The hellhounds loved belly rubs and human-sized squeaky toys, and the empousai were all terrible flirts. Still though, sometimes out of the corner of my eye I could see some of them staring at me hungrily, like I was just another morsel in the buffet line.

I shouldered my way past several monsters, trying to ignore their acrid stench. Luke parried Chris's swing and sidestepped him, slapping the flat of his blade against Chris's back. I winced as he stumbled forward. Luke may have had a brutal teaching style, but it was certainly effective.

"You're projecting your attacks," he scolded him. "Keep your eyes on your opponent's face."

Chris growled in frustration and swung again, but Luke beat him back. And so it went, Luke giving Chris a sound thrashing while I waited patiently, not wanting to interrupt Luke's lesson for fear of being dragged in. A moment later, Chris was on the floor, Luke eyeing the crowd to make sure they had all paid attention. Having finally taken notice of me, Luke dispersed everyone except for Chris, leaving just the three of us on the deck.

"So, you're finally awake, huh?" Luke asked.

Chris shot me a questioning look. "What's wrong, Perce? You look like you've just seen a ghost."

I told them my story about Grover.

"Grover…" Chris mused. "You mean the satyr that went with you on your quest last summer?"

I nodded. Luke seemed wholly unconcerned, which kind of ticked me off. "I wouldn't worry too much," he said. "Grover's got a knack for getting out of trouble by the skin of his teeth. There's really nothing we can do for him here. Besides, we've got bigger fish to fry."

"You mean poisoning Thalia's tree and exposing the camp?" I asked, raising a brow. I still wasn't entirely happy with the plan. I wished there was a way for us to find the Fleece ourselves.

Luke met my challenging tone with one of his own. "Yes, those are our orders. But first, we need to actually get the poison. Elder Python venom. Straight from the depths of Tartarus. It's pretty hard to come by, but luckily, Kronos is sending us a little gift our way to help us extract it."

Chris fidgeted nervously. "And by 'gift', do you mean 'a big scary snake that could probably swallow us whole'?"

"Well, more like a dragon, but yes, that's the idea."

"Oh… great."

"I thought pythons weren't venomous," I said.

Luke stared at me. "_Pythons_ aren't venomous. But _Python_ is. Look, the point is that the creature we're looking for is very dangerous. Only Apollo was ever able to kill it."

"Apollo is a god," Chris pointed out. "You really think we'll stand a chance against it?"

Luke shrugged. "We really only need a few drops of its venom. If we can sneak up on it while it sleeps and extract some of it, we might not have to fight it at all."

I hoped that by 'we', Luke meant 'himself', because I wasn't too confident that I could sneak up on a corpse, much less a dragon.

"And where exactly are we going to find this big scary monster?"

"New Jersey," he stated, as if that should have been obvious. "Where else would you find the most toxic creature in the world?"

Luke snapped his fingers, and a moment later, three Scythian dracanae ascended from a lower deck leading three beautiful pegasi by their reins. Or at least, they would've been beautiful if I hadn't been able to hear their thoughts. The one in the middle, a pure black stallion and the largest of the three, had a few choice words for the lizard woman leading him. When he saw Luke, he snorted and tugged at his reins.

_Oh ho, you must be the bozo who thought it'd be fun to lock us up on this stupid ship. Yo, Guido, Porkpie, get a load of these clowns._

The other two pegasi, one stunningly white and the other a dark grey, whinnied in response, which I assumed to be the pegasi's way of laughing.

Luke strode forward, an arm outstretched to pet the black pegasus's muzzle. "Excellent. Our rides are here," he said to us.

The pegasus flapped its lips, sending spittle flying onto Luke's hand and face. He pulled back angrily.

"Eugh, gross! Stupid animal," he growled.

He tugged forward on the reins and tried to mount the pegasus from the side, but the pegasus began stomping around like a riled-up bull, flinging Luke back to the deck.

Lying flat on his back, Luke let out a string of curses as he began pulling himself to his feet. He grabbed hold of the reins once more and dragged the pegasus over to me, pulling with all his strength as it fought back against him.

"Here," he said, handing me the reins. "This one is _yours_."

Luke trudged back over to the white one and had a much easier time saddling up. I shot Chris a pleading look, but he just shrugged and mounted the grey one. I turned toward the pegasus whose reins I was now holding and realized I'd never really seen a horse glare before.

_What are you looking at, punk? Do I look like a taxi to you? If you think I'm going to let you on my back, you got another thing coming. The second we're high enough to kill you, I'm doing a barrel roll._

"Um, I'd rather you didn't."

_Yeah, and I'd rather you _— _wait a minute, did you just understand me?_

The pegasus leaned forward and nudged its muzzle into the side of my head. It snorted.

_No way! You're a son of Poseidon! What are you doing with _these _losers?_

"We're on an important mission," I told him, though it looked like he wasn't buying it. I figured I was going to have to strike a deal with this pegasus before he'd be willing to take me anywhere. "Look, um, there really isn't any time to explain. I'm sorry you were locked up, but I promise if you let me ride you, I won't let you get confined to the stables anymore. You'll have free reign over the ship."

The pegasus stared at me.

"...that includes the hot tub."

He began to turn away.

"...and the buffet line."

_That _got his attention.

_Well, now we're talking! Let my pals Guido and Porkpie in on this too and you've got yourself a deal. Oh, and make sure you groom me three times a week. I don't like monsters brushing my mane. They mess it up every time._

I sighed, trying to accept the fact that I was negotiating with a winged horse. Yep, this was my life now.

"Fine," I agreed. The pegasus whinnied in celebration. Luke and Chris were staring at me like I'd grown a second head.

_You hear that fellas? We're going to eat like Pegasus tonight!_

I saddled up on the back of my new friend, trying to swallow the fact that I didn't actually know how to ride a horse, much less a _flying _horse. I looked over to Luke and took note of where his feet were placed. I tried to copy him.

Nervously, I glanced toward the sky. Zeus had warned me that he'd blast me out of the air if he ever caught me in his domain again, and that was _before_ I'd sworn to overthrow him. But then again, Poseidon was the lord of horses, so I guessed riding on a pegasus was sort of a middle ground.

My attempts to reassure myself fizzled out when the pegasus whinnied and jerked forward suddenly, nearly throwing me onto the deck right then and there.

"Whoa… h-hey!" I cried. Two massive black wings rose on both sides of me and then thrust downwards with a _THUD_, and the next thing I knew, we were airborne.

I leaned forward, holding onto the creature's muscled neck for dear life. The ground was falling away from us now, and I tried to ignore the queasy feeling in my stomach as we ascended higher and higher. My stupid mind chose that time to remind me of his threat to do a barrel roll, and I silently prayed he remembered our deal.

"Can you slow down?!" I yelled into the pegasus's ear over the turbulence of the wind.

_No can do! I haven't used my wings in days. I gotta open up!_

The pegasus swooped downwards like a falcon on the hunt, and I nearly lost my breakfast. The ship was coming closer and closer. I could see Luke and Chris's pegasi far below, just now starting to take off. Just when I thought we would go splat on the deck, my steed extended to his full wingspan. The wind buffeted the black feathers on his wings as we caught an updraft and abruptly leveled out.

Trembling, I tried to find a grip to push myself into a seated position again. "Alright, never do that again!" I shouted.

_Aw, come on, boss. Live a little! This is fun!_

I wanted to snap at him and tell him that was easy for him to say. He was the one with wings. Instead I tightened my grip and closed my eyes. Inhale, exhale. I focused on my breathing for a moment, a trick I found helpful whenever I caught myself stressing over the Prophecy. Thirty seconds passed, and the trembling in my body faded away. I could feel the wind whipping through my hair.

I opened my eyes and only one word came to my mind.

"Whoa…"

We were about a thousand feet in the air. To our left was Delaware, and our right, New Jersey. Far ahead, where the river narrowed and green countryside made way for urban sprawl, was Philadelphia. I marveled at just how breathtakingly small the skyline looked from so far away. The day was so clear that I must've been able to see for 50 miles at the very least.

_See? This ain't half bad, yeah?_

I nodded slowly, realizing he was right. I was completely relaxed. I was a thousand feet in the air with no parachute, sitting on a hyperactive pegasus, and I was actually _enjoying_ myself.

_Yo, the name's Blackjack by the way._

I ran my hand through his midnight-black mane, finding the name fitting.

"Percy," I said.

Blackjack's head turned until he was looking back at me. _Well Percy, I think you might wanna hold on tighter_.

The blood in my veins turned to ice. "What?" I demanded. "Wait, what are you going to d—"

_BARREL ROLL!_

My eyes bugged out and my arms clutched Blackjack's neck so hard I wasn't sure if he could breathe. My world turned upside down as I emptied the contents of my stomach somewhere in the Delaware Bay.

* * *

At some point, Luke, Chris, Guido, and Porkpie caught up to us. Luke took the lead and guided us closer to Philly, though to my disappointment, the city wasn't actually our destination.

We touched down somewhere in Camden, just across the river. I was so relieved to be back on the ground that I would've kissed it right then and there if it hadn't been so filthy.

Judging from our surroundings, I guessed we were in some kind of metal processing plant that hadn't been used in ages. Heaps of rusted scrap lay haphazardly around the property, making me wonder if I were due for a tetanus booster. In addition to the piles of scrap metal, there were some busted-open truck containers, dusty old construction equipment, and collapsed conveyor belts scattered around the yard.

Luke scanned the area, a hesitant look on his face. If the dragon was here, then it was doing a good job blending in. Blackjack grunted nervously.

_I don't like this, boss. It smells weird here, and I ain't talking about the chemicals. It's making my muzzle all tingly._

"Lord Kronos said the Python would be here," Luke said, his voice hushed. "Let's look around. And remember, we're trying to sneak up on it, so don't make a lot of noise."

We began searching the yard, trying our best not to knock anything over that might alert the monster, wherever it was. There was a decrepit old warehouse on the edge of the property with smashed windows and a couple missing doors, but all we found inside were some rotting wooden pallets and more construction equipment.

Blackjack eyed the area distastefully as we explored.

_Yuck_, he said. _You sure this is the place you wanted to go?_

'Yuck' was right. Under our feet, the soil had turned red from the rusty iron shavings spread about. Small ditches leading down to the river indicated the different paths that water would take when it rained, no doubt depositing heavy metals and other byproducts of the refining process into the river. Even from where we were standing, I could sense the pollution contaminating the water.

My thoughts momentarily drifted back to my goat-friend who I'd dreamed of the previous night. If Grover had been here and saw what we were seeing, he probably would've had a heart attack. My chest tightened with worry. I hoped that wherever he was, he was okay.

I forced myself to refocus on my surroundings. ADHD was great at honing your battle reflexes, but it was a double edged sword. Demigods could easily get distracted and end up as monster chow if they weren't paying attention.

I took a look at the scrap pile in front of us. The sunlight reflecting off the metal nearly blinded me. I did a once-over of the rest of the yard, double checking each of the collapsed conveyor belts and dull, rusty scrap piles.

Wait a minute.

Something about the way the pile in front of us gleamed in the sunlight caught my attention. None of the other scrap heaps glistened like this one. I brought a hand up to shield my eyes and squinted at it.

That's when I realized the pile was _breathing_. And the pieces of metal weren't actually metal at all.

In front of me, coiled in on itself, was a twenty foot tall mountain of blood-red scales. It had a body as large as a semi-truck with four legs thick as tree trunks and claws that you might find on a Tyrannosaurs Rex. It had wings, too, coppery and veiny, but they looked too small to be able to give the creature the advantage of flight, which I was thankful for. But it's most terrifying feature by far was its head. I could see why they named one of the biggest snakes in the world after this creature. It's neck was disproportionately long and coiled in circles on top of its body, its head resting on top. Fangs as long as my forearms protruded from its mouth.

It was dozing off in the yard, soaking up some sun-rays and probably dreaming of eating demigods and pegasi.

As silently as possible, I lunged forward and grabbed Luke and Chris's shoulders, yanking them back. Luke shot me an annoyed glance until I pointed at the sleeping creature. The color drained from his face.

Slowly, we backed away until we were far enough that we could whisper without waking it up.

Chris ran a hand through his hair, swearing in Ancient Greek. "Did you guys _see_ how big it's claws were?" he hissed. I wondered what the Python had to eat to get that big. Elephants?

I was trying to put together a plan for how we would go about extracting the venom when Luke produced a small glass vial from his pocket. My eyes widened.

"Are you seriously thinking of climbing that thing?" I asked.

Luke shook his head. "No, but I'm seriously thinking _you_ are."

My mouth hung open for a moment. I almost laughed. He had to be joking, right?

"You're only, what, 12 years old?" Luke asked. "You're the smallest out of all of us. It'll be less likely to notice you climbing on it."

I shook my head vigorously. "No way. I suck at sneaking around. You're dad is the god of thieves, and you stole the master bolt. You're way more qualified for this than I am. And I'm 13, thank you very much."

Luke's eyes narrowed at me and he held my gaze, but I refused to back down. I didn't even like the stupid poison-the-tree plan to begin with. I'd have rather gone off and began searching for the Fleece on my own. Like Hades I'd risk my life for a few drops of poison.

But as I glared at Luke, I took note of the scar running down his face, remembering the story of how he got it. He'd tried to sneak past a dragon on his quest for a Golden Apple, but the dragon guarding the tree noticed him and clawed his face, giving him a permanent reminder of his failure.

Now, we were doing the same thing with a different dragon, and I could see the fear hidden behind his stubborn expression.

Chris glanced back and forth between the two of us. Then he scoffed and grabbed the vial out of Luke's hand. "Fine, _I'll_ do it, ya bunch of wussies."

Luke's eyes widened and he reached out to stop Chris, but it was too late. He was already making his way towards the Elder Python. He looked back at us with a thumbs-up and a smirk that said, 'I got this', but there was a certain trepidation in the way he walked.

We watched with bated breath as Chris approached the slumbering serpent. He gave it an experimental nudge with his foot and, when nothing happened, took a hesitant step onto the creature's back. The monster shifted slightly, but otherwise made no indication of waking up. I thought for sure it would've awoken the moment Chris touched it, but I supposed we were so small compared to him that it would've been like a spider crawling across a human's leg.

Slowly, cautiously, Chris ascended the mountain of scales. I could feel my heart threaten to stop every time the dragon twitched or made a noise, but it never woke up. Finally, Chris reached the top and began crawling towards the creature's head. The T-shirt he wore flapped around wildly as the monster snored, and I saw Chris turn and gag on its foul breath.

Now face-to-face with the serpent's head, Chris extracted the vial from the pocket of his pants. Holding it tightly, he reached towards the bottom of the fang.

He was just about there when the plan fell apart like a badly-wrapped burrito.

_ACHOO!_

The noise came from behind me, and it startled me so badly that I pulled Riptide from my pocket and whirled around to face it. Blackjack stood behind me, and when he saw my sword, he reared and backed away from me.

_Whoa__, sorry, boss! I told you, the air was messing with my muzzle._

Next to me, Luke cursed. I turned back to the beast, and to my horror, its eyes had opened. Chris was standing inches away from its head, petrified. A long, forked tongue shot out of the serpent's mouth and collided with his chest, knocking him off his feet and sending him tumbling down the side of its body. He landed on the ground with a yelp, rolled, and scrambled back to his feet.

"RUN!" he shouted.

We didn't need to be told twice. The pegasi had already scattered into the sky as the serpent uncoiled itself. Its head ascended multiple stories into the air, its tongue flicking as it tried to locate us, and it wasn't until then that I saw the full extent of how large this creature was. It had to be at least half a football field from head to tail, maybe even more than that.

It's eyes narrowed at us, and we took off sprinting in the opposite direction. We ducked behind another scrap pile (thankfully this one wasn't a giant, man-eating dragon) as the monster spat a glob of venom at us. The toxic substance splashed against the mound and sizzled, eating away at the metal.

The three of us exchanged looks.

"Our pegasi left us," Luke growled angrily. "Stupid, good-for-nothing animals!"

"Move!" Chris shouted as another spurt of venom rained down on us.

We dashed away from the scrap heap and dived behind another, hoping the serpent wouldn't be able to keep track of us small creatures such as ourselves very well.

"We're toast!" Chris hissed.

"Luke, can't you whip up some portals to get us out of here?" I asked frantically.

Luke shook his head, peeking over the scrap mound. "No, I can only create portals to and from the ship, but I made the crew sail towards Camp Half-Blood to pick us up there. They'll be halfway to New York by now, too far away to open up a portal."

I tried desperately to think of a way to escape. There was just no fighting this thing. I could try calling Blackjack and his friends back, but then I'd be giving away our position, and what were the odds that they'd actually listen? Then, I heard it behind me. About a hundred and fifty feet away, behind a concrete wall that I could easily jump, the Delaware River flowed past. I didn't know if the Python could swim or not, but if we could get to the river, I'd be able to direct the currents to take the three of us to Philly.

I took a glance over the scrap heap. The Python's head had returned to the ground, and it was snaking its way around the construction equipment and piles of debris, searching for us.

"Come on," I hissed. "Follow me."

Quickly, quietly, we made a beeline for the wall. I didn't dare look behind us as we ran. The wall was about six feet high, so we were easily able to climb up and throw ourselves over. I was the last one to make it to the top, and just as I did, I heard a horrible screech behind me. I turned and my eyes widened. The serpent had discovered its prey was escaping and was now barreling down the yard toward us at Mach 1, its snakelike head slithering along the ground.

Luke and Chris had stopped to wait for me on the other side of the wall, but I waved them on. "Go!" I told them.

I leapt off the crest of the wall and made to follow them. There was a rocky outcropping leading down to the river that slowed us down a bit, and unfortunately, that was all the Python needed to catch up with us. Its head smashed through the concrete like it was made of building blocks. Luke and Chris dived head first into the water, avoiding the debris.

I was about to follow suit when a huge shadow passed over me. Suddenly, my escape route was cut off by a section of scales as thick as a truck tire. I glanced up to see the Python's reptilian eyes leering down at me. I heard its body move behind me, and I threw myself to the ground just in time to avoid a set of wickedly sharp claws passing over my head. Staring up at the beast, I was distinctly reminded of that feeling of helplessness as I faced the Chimera on the Gateway Arch, only this time, there was nowhere to jump. I scrambled to my feet again and drew Riptide, though how much good it would do against the monster, I had no idea. Maybe if it swallowed me whole, I could cut my way out from the inside.

"Percy!" Luke called from the other side of the beast, though if it heard him, it paid him no attention.

Just as the monster was rearing its head back to strike, I heard a shrill screeching sound, like someone was rubbing two knives together. The monster screamed and began to thrash, writhing this way and that, dislodging loose boulders and smashing up pieces of the wall. I realized that Luke had lodged Backbiter between two of the scales on the creature's back.

Luke was thrown back into the shallows of the river, and I was forced to dive into a ditch between the rocks to avoid getting crushed by the monster's body. The Python's head turned to its wound and plucked the sword from its body, swallowing it up in one gulp.

The monster's attention was now fully on Luke and Chris. Slowly, I rose from the ditch. Luke was weaponless, and all Chris had was a standard bronze long-sword. They were sitting ducks in the water.

I watched in horror as the Python flicked its head forward, spraying venom from its mouth. I screamed for them to run, but there was no way they'd be fast enough. I felt a tug in my gut, and I realized something.

I could _sense_ the venom in the air the same way I could sense the pollution in the water. They were both diluted by other elements and chemicals, but they were still _water _based_._

I reached out mentally and grasped the venom, and to my surprise, it froze mid-air, hovering just in front of Chris. I must've not been able to stop all of it, because Chris collapsed in the water, clutching his leg and crying out in pain. Luke ran to him, glancing at the floating glob of venom with a stunned expression.

The monster itself just looked perplexed. It cocked its head to the side and flicked its tongue out, tasting the air. The tug in my gut started to become painful. Willing the venom to do as I commanded, I flung it back into the head of the Python. It seemed to take a while for it to register what happened, because after a moment of dazed silence, it let loose an ear-shattering screech of pain.

The scales on its head sizzled as it began to thrash about blindly. Clutching my sword, I sprinted to its body and climbed onto its back. This time, its writhing was slow enough to allow me to run up its neck, and when I reached the narrowest part, I brought Riptide down in an arc.

A clean slice. The writhing stopped. The tug in my gut lessened, and I felt a wave of fatigue wash over me. The Python's head fell to the ground and began disintegrating. And, unfortunately, the bit that I was standing on did the same. I found myself in free-fall, the ground rushing up several stories to meet me. I tried to command the water to catch me, but it wasn't fast enough.

I thought for sure I was about to break every bone in my body, but then a blur of black shot underneath me. I found myself slowly being lowered the remaining few feet to the ground by a soft cushion.

_Close one, boss! Good thing you've got old Blackjack around to save the day, huh?._

He whinnied nervously, as if he hadn't been the cause of the entire encounter.

We set down on the rocky outcropping, and Luke was by my side in an instant, helping to lower me from the pegasus. He must've found Backbiter somewhere in the monster's carcass, because it was slung across his back again.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

I nodded. "Help Chris."

The Hispanic teen had pulled himself up onto the outcropping, and he didn't look good. He had his leg in the water and was vigorously trying to scrub away at the some hidden wound, maybe trying to wash the poison off. Luke told him to sit back and gingerly lifted his leg out of the water. He hissed when he saw the wound.

"It was only a couple drops," Chris said through gritted teeth.

The skin along his shin was a grotesque mixture of white, black, and red. I'd seen deadly snake bites cause discoloration on nature documentaries before, but this was different. This looked more like a chemical burn, and a pretty bad one at that. _This is what we're putting in Thalia's tree?_ I wondered.

Blackjack sidled up next to me, and his black eyes fixed on Chris's leg. I hadn't realized it was possible for a horse to look guilty until I saw him lower his head and stare at the floor.

_Oh man, that don't look too good,_ he spoke in my mind. _Can you… can you tell him I'm sorry? I didn't mean to wake up that over-sized lizard. Honest._

"It wasn't your fault," I told him, rummaging through his saddlebags on autopilot. I fished out the ziploc bag of ambrosia we packed and rushed it over to Chris. Handing him a piece, he popped it into his mouth, and the relief on his face was instantaneous. Some of the color returned to the flesh on his leg, but I knew he wouldn't be walking on it any time soon.

Luke stood and glanced around, his eyes narrowing on Blackjack. The pegasus took a nervous step backwards. "Looks like you're the only one that came back," he said, clearly disappointed. "Percy, tell your pegasus to take Chris back to the ship."

"No, it's okay. I can keep going," Chris said. "Really, it doesn't even hurt that bad anymore. Look."

He tried to stand and immediately fell backwards, a grimace wracking his features.

"Don't move," Luke chided. "You need to visit the ship's med bay. Percy and I will take care of the rest."

Chris looked like he wanted to argue, but he really didn't have a leg to stand on. After a short, painful-looking process, we had Chris all strapped into Blackjack's saddles.

_Take care, boss. If you need anything, you know where to find me._

"Uh… where's that?"

_Wherever the enchiladas are, of course. Or you could just whistle for me. That works, too._

In a blur of black feathers, Blackjack took off into the sky and headed east back towards the ship. Luke and I watched him disappear over the trees.

"Well, great," Luke said. "The Python woke up before we were able to get anything out of it. Kronos isn't going to be happy to hear we murdered his gift."

Something on the ground where the Python's head had fallen gleamed brightly in the sunlight. Taking a closer look, I said, "I wouldn't be too sure about that." I stooped down and picked up a curved, white object the size of my forearm.

"I suppose this is my spoil of war," I said, holding up the Python's fang. I brought it over to Luke and held it out for him to see.

As we examined it, a drop of green venom fell from the tip of the fang and nearly landed on his shoe. He danced out of the way just in time to hear the acidic substance sizzle against the rock.

"Sorry!" I said, yanking it away.

"Oh, yeah. That'll do," Luke marveled, staring at the fang. "A few drops of that injected into the tree's roots will weaken it in no time. Then the campers will have no choice but to go after the Golden Fleece."

We shared a look, and I understood. It was time to go back to camp. Soon, there'd be no turning back.

"How are we going to get there?" I asked. "The other pegasi took off, and we don't have a car."

Luke's hand disappeared into his pocket, and he pulled out a large, golden coin. A drachma. "Leave that to me."

* * *

**I always wondered how Luke managed to get a hold of Elder Python venom in the books. I figured having them actually fight for it would be more interesting then just getting an Amazon delivery from Tartarus. And yes, I'm aware that Python is a character in the Trials of Apollo books, but I haven't read them, so in this story he's a bit more like Ladon. Extremely powerful, but not as intelligent.**


	14. Change of Plans

I think I would've preferred doing loop-de-loops on Blackjack all the way back to the ship than what Luke had in mind. We hiked a little ways out to the road in silence, Luke clutching his drachma tightly in his fist. When we reached the curb, he muttered a prayer that sounded suspiciously like, "_Stop, O Chariot of Damnation",_ and tossed his drachma into the middle of the road. I expected it to bounce and roll away, but instead it lodged itself in the asphalt and sunk into it like quicksand.

I blinked, waiting for something to happen. Seconds later, the road around it began to sizzle and boil. Wisps of gray haze emerged from the ground and began to take shape. Distinctive features such as wheels and a taxi cab sign began to form out of the fog. It read _GARY ISSTRES TXAI SRECVIE_. I looked towards Luke, uncertain.

"I used them once a few years ago, back when Annabeth, Thalia, and I were bumming around. They're fast," he explained.

The physics of it didn't seem entirely correct, but the smoky, passenger side window rolled down to reveal three hideous, ancient ladies sitting in the front seats. I was nearly jolted out of my skin when I realized two of them didn't have eyes. Only the one in the middle had a single eye, and she regarded the two sitting next to her cautiously as if they might try to steal it right from her face at any point.

"Two to Camp Half-Blood, please," Luke said, as if all of this was perfectly normal.

The one closest to the passenger door scowled at us. She opened her mouth to speak, revealing a singular, yellowed tooth.

"Usual range is the Greater New York City area. Extra fees for out-of-metro pickup and destination," she demanded.

Luke looked annoyed but sighed in resignation, fishing around in his pocket for more coins, muttering something about "highway robbery" and how "he knows a thief when he sees one." He handed them an extra two drachmae, and the one with the single tooth bit into them, bending them a little bit. She turned to the lady next to her, who had the only eye between the three of them, and nodded. She turned back to us and tilted her head towards the rear doors.

"Get in."

Luke climbed in first, and I got in after him. As soon as the door was closed, my head smacked against the headrest behind me like a rollercoaster, and we accelerated away faster than any sports car I ever dreamed of driving. Before I knew it, towns and countryside were passing by in the blink of an eye. We swerved this way and that, nearly careening off the road multiple times to avoid traffic. The one in the middle was navigating, but she wasn't just giving street directions. She was calling out when we were about to run into something.

"Umm, shouldn't the driver be the one with the eye?" I suggested.

"Yes, exactly!" the driver exclaimed. "Anger, give me the eye!"

"No, Wasp, you had the eye all of yesterday," the lady in the middle replied, whose name must have been Anger. "It's my turn with the eye. Truck!"

We swerved into the left lane, over the median, and into oncoming traffic. I scrambled to find the seatbelt and realized that it was a black, metal chain. If we crashed into anything, I'd be sliced to ribbons. I decided I wasn't _that_ desperate… yet.

Luke, for his part, looked completely relaxed. He leaned back in his seat, hands resting calmly on the Python fang laying in his lap.

The three sisters continued to bicker in the front. I shot Luke a _why-did-you-do-this-to-me_ look. He chuckled.

"Just relax," he said. "The Gray Sisters have been doing this for millennia. They know what they're doing."

"Yes!" said the lady on the right. "We've had many famous people in here. Perseus! You know him? Probably not. You're too young to know who he is."

"Shh, Tempest," said Anger, who was trying to bat away Wasp's attempts to take her eye. "We don't speak of him! Took weeks to find our eye after he threw it into that lake. Never again!"

Anger's eye hungrily watched Tempest bite into one of the drachmae. She reached out to Tempest's face, but her sister jerked her head back.

"Tempest, give me the tooth! I want to bite the coin."

"Only if you trade me for the eye!" Tempest screeched.

"No, give _me_ the eye!" Wasp cried. "I'm driving!"

Anger lazily waved a hand through the air, not that any of her sisters could see it. "Bah, excuses," she said. "Turn! That was your turn!"

We skidded around a corner, over the curb with a jaw-rattling _thump,_ and drifted back onto the road. As we came around the corner, the New York City skyline came into view. I knew in reality we'd only been in the taxi for a few minutes, so travelling that distance should have been impossible, but to me it felt like we'd been in that cab for an eternity, so I decided not to question it. The sooner we got there, the better.

The sisters were fighting for real now, arguing and shoving their hands in each other's faces. Tempest bit Anger's hand, causing her to recoil and smack her head into Wasp, which sent us swerving off-road briefly. Luke gazed out his window, admiring the skyline. I held onto my seat for dear life.

Wasp furiously struck back at Anger, smacking the back of her head with a glorious open palmed strike. A sickening _POP_ met my ears as I watched _something_ fly off of Anger's face, bounce against the headrest, and land in my lap. I looked down at it and blinked, and nearly hit my head on the roof when it blinked back at me.

"Aaagh!" someone screamed. It might have been me.

The eye fell to the floor and rolled under the passenger-side seat. For a moment, I was relieved that it was out-of-sight, because I thought I'd throw up if I had to look at it anymore. But then the cab began accelerating wildly, and the orb came rolling back to my feet.

"Waaagh!" Anger wailed. "No fair! Wasp, give me back the eye!"

"I don't have it, you old hag!"

Anger spun to her other sister, grabbing her hair and shaking. "Tempest!"

"I don't have it either!"

"It's back here!" I supplied helpfully.

Immediately, three gnarled, gray hands were shoved my way.

"Give it back to me, boy!" Anger cried. "It's still my turn with the eye."

Wasp tried to bat Anger's hand away, and it occurred to me that none of them could see the road anymore. It was a miracle we hadn't crashed yet. "No, no, give _me_ the eye, so I don't crash the damned cab!" Wasp demanded.

Tempest was doing her best to fight off her sisters. "No, I want the eye!" she said. "Wasp and Anger never share it with me. If you give it here, I'll tell you what you want to know. The location you seek!"

That got my attention. Immediately, the other two hands that were shoved in my face went to beating on Tempest.

"No fair!" Wasp cried. "He didn't even ask yet!"

"Dirty cheater!" Anger cried. "No eye for you!"

The location I seek. It didn't take a genius to figure out what they meant by that. I turned and gave Luke a pointed stare. Now, _he _was the one looking troubled. He fiddled with the fang, drops of venom oozing out and melting into the smoky gray interior of the cab.

"Percy, you have to give them back the eye," he said. "They won't be able to navigate New York City without it."

I glanced through the windshield and realized he was right. It would only be a minute before we wound up in the Hudson River, or in the side of some skyscraper. Crashing and getting stranded so close to the entrance to Olympus didn't seem like the best of ideas at the moment, given our fugitive statuses.

"But you heard what she said," I replied. "'The location you seek.' They know where the Golden Fleece is!"

Without waiting for Luke's response, I steeled my resolve and tore off a piece of my shirt, using it to pick up the eyeball. I snatched the Python fang out of Luke's hand and held it out in front of me, a drop of venom threatening to spill onto the cloth.

"Alright, I'll give it back," I told them. "But first you have to tell me where the Fleece is, or I melt the eye. It'll take a lot longer than a few weeks to get it back this time."

"No time!" Wasp yelled. "Going to crash!"

"Hurry, give it back!" Anger yelled.

"Not until you tell me what I need to know," I answered calmly, trying to sound more confident than I really felt. Ahead of us, the bridge was approaching fast. "Oh, and if you crash the car, I'm giving you a 4-star rating."

"Noo!" Tempest screeched. "We've never gotten lower than a 5!"

Wasp glanced back at me, panicked. "Fine, fine! 30, 31, 75, 12!"

I stared at them, feeling like I must have missed part of that sentence. "What?"

"30, 31, 75, 12!" the Gray Sisters screamed in terrifying unison.

"What the heck does that mean?" I asked.

"Percy," Luke said urgently. "You have to give them the eye _now._"

I decided not to argue. The bridge was right on us now, and we were starting to veer off the road. A few seconds longer and we'd end up in the river. Which wouldn't really be a problem for _me_, but then we'd lose our ride to Camp Half-Blood.

I tossed the eye into Wasp's lap. She plucked it up, popped it into her eye socket like she was putting in a contact lens, and screamed "Woah!".

We swerved back onto the road at the last second, narrowly avoiding the wall of the bridge. Luke sat back in his seat, relieved. I handed him back the fang, and he went back to looking bored. But there was an edge to his expression now. He shot me a sideways glance, and I tried my best to look apologetic.

My heart felt like a jackhammer against my chest as I slowly leaned back into my seat. With the chaos of the last few minutes finally over, I began to ponder what the numbers she gave me could mean.

The cab grew silent as we wound our way through the city streets. Even the Gray Sisters must have realized how close we'd all come to dying, because they stopped bickering over the eye and allowed Wasp to drive at a reasonable speed. It wasn't close to the speed limit by any means, but compared to what we'd just gone through, I wasn't going to complain.

30, 31, 75, 12. What did those numbers mean? A phone number? Country codes? A winning lottery ticket?

I had to figure it out quickly. If we knew where the Fleece was, then we could go get it ourselves rather than going through with Luke's half-baked plan to get the campers to do it. I felt like I should've known what those numbers meant, but the answer remained on the tip of my tongue.

I leaned forward and tapped Anger on the shoulder. Her head snapped to the side, and I gulped when I came face-to-face with her now empty eye-socket.

"Eh? What is it?"

"Um, would you mind telling me what those numbers mean?"

She paused, working her jaw around in consideration. I remembered her berating Tempest for mentioning the Fleece without me even asking. Maybe now that I was asking politely, she'd be a bit more forthcoming.

"We've already told you too much," she decided. "However, I could be _persuaded_ to have a loud conversation about it with my sisters," she added, rubbing her thumb and forefinger together.

My hands immediately went for my wallet, but I paused when it occurred to me that they probably didn't accept USD.

"Luke, you got any more drachmae?"

Luke turned his pockets inside out and shook his head. "They cleaned me out. Sorry."

I frowned, biting back a curse. I turned back to the Gray Sisters. "Please, isn't there _anything_ you can tell me about those numbers? They don't make any sense to me."

Anger gave me an apologetic smile, which I would've appreciated more if she had teeth. "Sorry, boy. We don't work for free."

"Bah, kids these days!" Tempest mocked. "Don't even know how to read a map. Jason could navigate using just the stars!"

"Oi, would you shut up already?" Wasp growled.

I leaned back in my seat, eyes staring out the window. So the numbers were related to a map in some way, according to Tempest, but that still didn't help much. Addresses, scaled measurements, postal codes…

"Coordinates!" I shouted a little louder than I meant to. I turned to Luke excitedly. "Those numbers are coordinates. We just have to find where they point to on the map, and we'll find the Fleece."

Luke smiled, though it didn't quite reach his eyes. "Well, that'll certainly make it easier for the campers to find it," he said.

My initial excitement quickly gave way to confusion. "Well, no," I said. "It'll make it easier for _us _to find it. Because we don't have to rely on the campers getting a prophecy anymore. We can go and find the Fleece ourselves."

The false smile on his face dropped away, and he sighed wearily. "Percy," he began, and I was instantly wary of his tone. He sounded like he was about to break some bad news to a child, like their trip to Disney World was canceled. "Look, I appreciate your faith in our abilities, but there's a pretty big difference between finding the Fleece, and coming back with it alive. There's a reason nobody's seen it in the last two thousand years, and right now, we just can't afford to go in blind. The two of us, we're pretty much all that stands between Kronos and the gods. If something were to—"

"Kronos?!"

Whatever Luke was going to say was cut off when both of our heads slammed into the seats in front of us. The brakes screeched, and the smell of burning rubber assaulted my nostrils. The cab screeched to a halt at the top of a hill.

"A thousand curses upon that name!" Anger wailed.

"Out, out, out!" cried Wasp, batting at us with her lethal open-palm strikes.

Luke and I both threw our doors open and frantically climbed out. The front windows rolled down, and Wasp stuck her head out the driver side, her eye narrowed at Luke and I.

"Don't ever summon us again!" she growled. Our doors both slammed shut seemingly on their own, and the tires spun in a cloud of smoke as the cab sped away. I watched it go for a few seconds before it sank back into the ground, leaving us on a random stretch of road in the middle of Long Island.

Luke rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Guess they weren't big fans of the Titan king."

"Great," I said. "Now what?"

Luke scanned our surroundings, the Python fang held loosely in his fingertips. "I recognize this hill," he said. "We're actually not too far from camp."

I looked around, trying to get my bearings, but I hadn't really been paying attention to the road the past couple of times I was driven to camp. The first time, I'd been too distracted by the thought of getting gored by the Minotaur to focus, and the second time… The second time was when I'd gotten back from Olympus, just after I'd learned about my mom. I'd been in a daze the entire ride back to camp.

Forests covered the edges of the clearing on either side of us, and the road continued winding down into the valley below before disappearing behind some trees. I didn't see any landmark that Luke could've recognized, but then he pointed off in the distance.

"See the top of that really tall tree over there? That's Thalia's pine," he said. "We can walk the rest of the way for sure."

I studied the fang in his hand. Somehow, it looked more wicked with Luke holding it than it did in the mouth of the Python. "You _still_ want to poison the tree?" I asked him. "Even though we know how to find the Fleece now?"

"Those were the orders we were given."

I paused for a moment, confused. "But wasn't the whole reason you and Kronos came up with this plan because we didn't know where the Fleece actually was?"

"That was only part of the problem. It has more to do with the fact that wherever it is, it'll likely be too dangerous for us to retrieve it," he explained. "Like I was saying there's a reason why nobody has seen it in the last two thousand years and lived to tell about it. Kronos simply doesn't want to take that risk with us. Now, come on. It's getting late. Let's get this over with."

He began walking down the side of the road, but I stayed rooted to my spot. "No, wait."

Luke turned back to me, annoyance crossing his features. He raised an eyebrow.

"If you and Kronos think getting the Fleece will be so difficult that we'll likely die trying, then what chance do the campers have? I don't mean to brag, but you and I have more experience leading quests than anyone else at camp. We have the best odds of succeeding, and you want to trust someone else to do this quest? Do you even want to bring Thalia back?"

"Of course I want her back," he snapped, eyes lit with indignation. "Believe me, I'd love to be the one to heal her. But you have to consider Kronos's position. He's still reforming, which means he completely depends on us for his long term plan to work, and you even more so. Sending us into danger right now would be like going all-in before he's even read his cards."

"So what you're saying is that we're not expendable…"

"Right."

"...but the campers are?"

Luke sighed and closed his eyes. His voice lowered to a deadly calm. "In Kronos's eyes, yes."

So that was it. I supposed I shouldn't have been surprised that Kronos was so flippant with the lives of the demigods at camp. It was definitely the smart move, having your enemies do your dirty work for you. If the campers succeeded, he'd have another piece on his chessboard. If they failed, then that was one less tool in the gods' shed.

What did surprise me was that Luke was just going along with it. I just couldn't accept that he'd put the whole camp in danger—his brothers and sisters, Silena, and especially Annabeth—when there was another option. Why would he gamble with Thalia's life like that? It wasn't that he didn't care. I could sense as much. But it was like there was something holding him back. Almost as if...

"You're afraid," I said.

Luke scowled at me, his scar rippling, and I knew I was treading on thin ice. "What?"

"You're afraid," I said again. "You're afraid of failing another quest."

He bristled, and I knew I hit a little too close to home.

"I'm not _afraid, _Percy. I'm just being practical. My first quest? It didn't matter that I failed. Nothing was riding on it. Losing the bolt? It set our plans back a bit, but nothing we couldn't recover from. But now? One wrong move could mean the Sixth Age never comes. We have to play it smart. And _safe_."

I scoffed. "What about sending us after the Python? You call that safe?"

"Evidently, Kronos thought it was less dangerous than wherever the Fleece is."

He turned and resumed following the road, only now there was a stiffness to his gait. I heard him mumble something under his breath.

"What was that?"

"I said, it's not like you know anything about failure anyways."

Now, to most people, that little comment might have seemed like a good thing. But the way Luke said it made me feel like it wasn't meant to be taken as a compliment. He made it sound like I was some naive, inexperienced little kid who had never faced adversity before in his life.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked indignantly, moving to catch up.

"It means you don't know what it's like to blow your one chance at making people proud of you. Your quest was a success. You didn't have to deal with all the pitying looks, the awkward condolences. The entire freaking camp celebrated when you got back. All I got was a half-hearted pat on the back and a "Good try, you'll get 'em next time." So don't pretend like you understand how I feel."

Every word he said brought me closer and closer to boiling over. Is that what he thought? Had he really forgotten already?

"You're wrong," I said.

"About what?"

"My quest wasn't a success."

Luke's eyebrow quirked up. "What do you mean? Of course it was. You returned the bolt safe and sound and prevented the largest civil war in history. Everyone at camp treated you like a hero the rest of the summer."

I shook my head slowly and let my eyes rest on the painted white line we were walking along. "It was never about the bolt," I said. "For me, at least."

Luke stared at me from the corner of his eye, his eyebrows furrowed, until realization dawned on his face. "Your mom," he said.

"I failed to save what mattered most. It was right there in the prophecy. I knew from the very beginning that I was going to fail my quest, but I had to try. Because if I didn't do everything I possibly could, then I'd never be able to live with myself." I paused, hoping Luke understood my point. His fingers curled around the Python fang, testing his grip as he considered my words. "It's the same way now," I continued. "We can't just push this off on somebody else."

Luke fell silent for a moment, his thoughts bringing him from a brisk pace to a steady plod to a full stop. He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Look," he said. "If you want to ignore a direct order from Kronos, then fine. Be my guest. You can go back to the ship and try to convince him to let you go after the Fleece yourself. Maybe you'll have better luck than I did."

He tucked the fang under his arm and resumed his trek down the hill, leaving me staring after his retreating figure. "But I'm going to finish the task Kronos gave us," he continued. "He's punished me for failing him once before. I'm not too keen on going through that again."

I stood frozen in place, realizing I'd been right. Luke _was _afraid. He was so afraid of screwing everything up that he was willing to blindly follow Kronos's orders, even if that meant putting his friends at risk. This way, if the quest failed and Thalia wasn't healed by the Fleece, he had the campers to shift the blame to. At least, that's what I figured he was telling himself.

Making up my mind, I called down to him. "I'm not letting you do this, Luke."

He belted out a laugh that didn't sound the slightest bit amused. "Go back to the ship, Percy," he said, not even turning around. "I'll meet you there soon."

I extended a hand towards him, searching for that tugging sensation in my gut. I felt the distinct shape of the fang, the venomous liquid sloshing around inside, and concentrated on it. Luke stopped and spun back towards me, his eyes widening.

"What are you doing?" he asked, his voice slightly panicked.

I focused on increasing the pressure inside the fang, feeling it growing stronger and stronger until _CRACK_. Luke must've realized what was happening just in time, because he dropped the fang and jumped back just as it burst, sending globs of corrosive venom onto the asphalt where it sizzled in the heat.

Luke's expression morphed from shock to cold rage. He glared hard at me. "You shouldn't have done that," he said, his tone low and threatening.

"I killed the Python, so the fang belonged to me." I said. " It was my decision what to do with it. That's how it works, right?"

"Kronos won't be happy when he hears of your insubordination."

My thoughts immediately drifted back to the conversation I'd overheard in my dreams the night I boarded the _Princess Andromeda_. Kronos had questioned my loyalty towards him over the camp. With a sinking feeling in my chest, I realized this was the sort of situation he had foreseen. He'd see this as me siding with the camp over him.

Only, I wasn't betraying the Titan king. We still had the same goals. I was just disagreeing with the best way to achieve them. Maybe he'd even see the merit in my way of doing things.

"Yeah?" I told Luke. "I guess we'll see about that."

Satisfied that the camp was now safe for the time being, I stuck two fingers in my mouth and whistled. I knew that Blackjack would've gotten Chris safely back to the ship by now, and I had a feeling he wasn't the type of pegasus who liked to sit on his haunches all day, not so soon after being released from his prison in the stables.

Sure enough, a few moments later a shadowy blur appeared overtop the trees and glided down to the road, wings kicking up dust off the asphalt.

_Hey boss_, _you look like you could use a ride. _He glanced towards Luke, snorting distastefully. _Can't carry both of you, though._

I mounted the black stallion hoping he'd be too exhausted to perform any more crazy stunts.

Luke continued to glare at me. I did my best to ignore him. His father was the god of travelers. He'd find his own way back to the ship, one way or another.

"Where are you going?" Luke demanded, an uneasiness in his voice. It reminded me of the way he sounded when I angrily stormed away after Kronos gave me his first "test".

I met his gaze as Blackjack got ready for take off.

"Back to the ship," I said. "I've got a quest to prepare for."

With a running start, the pegasus leapt into the air and thrust his wings downwards, leaving in the dust a very displeased son of Hermes.


	15. Luke Ruins Everything

It was sundown when Blackjack and I got back to the _Princess Andromeda_. Luke must have ordered the crew to sail closer to Camp Half-Blood before we left, because my bearings told me we were nowhere near the Delaware Bay where we departed from that morning.

I could feel Blackjack's breathing grow heavy underneath me, and his head began to droop over the last stretch of the flight. I had to give him credit. He'd flown back and forth from the ship all day long. It was incredible that he still had any energy left in him at all, but I supposed that's what a sudden rush of freedom would do to you.

We descended lazily over the water until we touched down on the main deck, Blackjack stumbling slightly on the landing.

_Whew, maybe I overdid it a little on the flight this morning, boss. I'm spent._

"You did great today, Blackjack. I'll be sure to bring you extra sugar cubes next time."

Even the promise of extra food didn't seem to rejuvenate him that much.

_Think I'll go relax for a bit in the hot tub. I'm sore as all Hades._

As I watched Blackjack mosey away, I realized how tired I was myself. Riding a hyperactive pegasus and fighting legendary monsters wasn't exactly a walk in the park. I tried to shake the heaviness out of my muscles. There were still things I needed to do.

30, 31, 75, 12.

Those were the numbers that had been bouncing around my head since our taxi ride earlier that day. They were coordinates, no doubt about it. I needed to figure out where they pointed. Thanks to my heritage, I could tell what coordinates marked our current location, but that didn't help me figure out where our destination was.

I took the elevator up to the bridge, where I remembered a large map hanging up on the wall. Hecate wasn't there. She'd finished working on her illusion contraption months ago and hadn't returned to the ship since. She was a titaness, so there was little doubt that Kronos had much more important work for her.

The map was displayed up on a bulletin board, several pushpins having already been stuck into it. There was one at the tip of Long Island that marked Camp Half-Blood, another poking a hole through New York City (or Olympus, more likely), and also several pins that marked spots that I didn't know the significance of. One was in the middle of California somewhere, another in Washington, and one out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

Grabbing another pushpin from the box, I traced my finger along the longitudinal and latitudinal lines until I found where they intersected. The paper crinkled as I stuck the pin in at 30°31'N, 75°12'W, smack dab in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle.

I almost laughed, not believing my luck. The Golden Fleece was on some uncharted island in the middle of the ocean. With my powers over water, getting it would be a cinch. And Luke thought going after it ourselves would've been too dangerous? He couldn't have been further from the truth. Even if the _Princess Andromeda_ were a regular cruise ship that didn't have magical bursts of speed, we'd still be able to make it to those coordinates and have the Fleece by the end of the week. What was he so worried about?

I looked over at the controls for the ship, wondering if I could set its navigation system to take us there right now. But then, I remembered with a pang of guilt that I'd left Luke behind on Long Island. I couldn't just jack his ship and leave without him. I'd have to wait for him to get back.

Heading into the elevator, I went back to the main deck. My next stop was the infirmary. Several rows of cots had been set up, but only a few were occupied on the account that we still weren't close to max capacity, despite all the recruiting we'd done. Still, those few who were in the infirmary had to be a pain in the neck to take care of, considering a couple of them were actually monsters.

A hellhound the size of a bear snoozed in the corner of the room, one of its paws wrapped up in a pink bandage with hearts all over it and a scrawl that read, '_No chew!_'

The other monster was so big it took up four cots. It was a Laistrygonian giant, curled up on his side, thick hands clutching at his stomach as he moaned in pain.

There were also a few demigods currently resting up. Most were sporting injuries from training accidents and the like, but the one I was here to see was currently being treated for a pretty gnarly wound given to him by the Elder Python.

"Percy!" Chris grinned toothily when he saw me, but then he hissed in pain.

"Sit still," the lady treating him commanded, wrapping a bandage around his leg. "And Percy, you can take the cot next to Chris."

I grinned, amused that she assumed I was injured. "I'm just visiting this time, Adri."

She looked up from her work at bandaging Chris's leg to eye me skeptically.

"No broken bones?" she asked.

"Nope."

"No concussions?"

"Uh-uh."

"You're not bleeding? Not even a little bit?"

"I'm fine," I said, chuckling.

"Well, _that's_ certainly surprising, considering Chris just got done telling me you guys fought the _Elder freaking Python_ today. Honestly, are you kids insane? The only person that ever succeeded in killing it before was—well… my father."

My grin died quickly, as I knew we had hit a sore spot. Over the past couple of months, I'd been in and out of the infirmary enough times that I had gotten to know the one and only doctor aboard the _Princess Andromeda._ Her name was Adrianna, and she was a daughter of Apollo. An older demigod, probably mid to late twenties, though I had thought she was much older at first on account of the age lines on her face. Whether they were from stress or getting too much sun, I couldn't tell, but I learned my lesson about assuming her age after I'd once jokingly called her an old hag.

She had been a regular at Camp Half-Blood until she turned 18, and then left to become a med student. School wasn't that bad, she'd told me. There was the occasional monster to deal with, but it was nothing her years at camp hadn't taught her to handle. During her time at school, she fell in love with another student, a mortal man, and they married soon after their graduation.

They lived happily together, for a while. Obviously, she'd told him about her parentage before they'd married and warned him of the dangers of being around her. He'd thought she was playing a prank on him at first, but it didn't take much convincing after the first monster attack.

One day, about a year later, she came home early to find her husband in bed with another woman. She'd nearly flown into a rage at the sight until she saw how pale her husband was. Then she noticed the bronze prosthetic leg and donkey hoof sticking out from under the covers, and the long fangs currently sunken into her husband's neck.

She'd caught the _empousa_ by surprise, and was able to make short work of it. By the time she was done, however, her husband was already knocking on death's door. He was mortal, so she couldn't give him ambrosia, and he was injured beyond what her healing powers could handle. She'd rushed him to the emergency room, but there was nothing any of the staff there could do. He'd lost too much blood. She prayed to her father, Apollo, to save him, but her prayers went unanswered. Apollo didn't give her so much as a whisper.

Her husband died in the hospital that night, and it had been the last straw in an already rocky relationship with her father. Kronos came to her in a dream and opened her eyes to the backwards ways of the gods. That was how she ended up on the _Princess Andromeda_ running an infirmary for monsters and demigods alike, though she had a strict _no-empousa_ policy for obvious reasons.

The Laistrygonian giant in the next row of cots made a noise that sounded like a dying humpback whale.

"Gonna be sick," it said.

Adri rolled her eyes in annoyance. "You might not want to hang around long," she told me. "Unless you want to know what a Laistrygonian with food poisoning smells like. What are they even feeding these guys?"

She paused for a moment before shaking her head. "You know what? I don't even want to know. Chris, that healing salve should work quickly. Just don't walk on that leg for at least a couple days. And Percy—"

"Stay out of trouble," I finished for her. "No promises."

She smiled. "I don't want to see you back here for at least another month, you hear me?"

Another moan escaped the giant, prompting her to get up. "I'm coming, I'm coming. For such a big guy, you sure act like a baby."

As Adri fetched a bucket for the giant, I sat down on the side of Chris's cot, making sure not to disturb his injury.

"How's the leg?" I asked.

He glanced down at the bandages. "Well, you heard her. Not too bad, but I'm not gonna be able to fight any more dragon-monsters with you this week," he said. His face turned serious, and he lowered his voice. "Did you and Luke… um…"

"Poison the tree?" I finished for him.

He nodded.

"Nope," I said, a grin snaking its way onto my face.

His eyes widened. "You didn't?" He was definitely surprised, but I detected a hint of relief in his voice, too. It seemed he didn't really want to go through with the original plan, either.

I filled him in on what happened since Blackjack took him back to the ship. The ride with the Gray Sisters, learning the coordinates, and then my disagreement with Luke.

"You just left him there?" he asked in shock. "I guess that explains why he isn't here right now. Jeez, you've got some cojones, man. He's gonna be pissed at you."

"Yeah, well… the important thing is that the camp is safe."

I told him about the coordinates I'd received from the Gray Sisters, and how I'd found where they pointed.

"It shouldn't be too hard to get there," I said. "At the rate this ship has been going, we could be there in a few days. Then, once we have the Fleece, we can bring it back to camp and see if it revives Thalia."

Chris regarded me with a hesitant expression. "I don't know if it'll really be that easy, Percy. There's gotta be a reason no one's stumbled across the Fleece in the past 2000 years. If you go looking for it, you'll have to be careful."

"Well, we _are _on a floating military base with an army of demigods and monsters at our backs, so I kind of like our odds. What could possibly stop us from taking it?" I asked.

"I don't know," Chris said. "Maybe we do stand a better chance than others have in the past. Just don't get overconfident. That's how most heroes end up biting it."

"Hmm. Fair enough," I said, remembering all the grim stories I'd learned during my Ancient Greek lessons with Annabeth.

I felt the corners of my mouth involuntarily curl downwards. I'd hated those lessons at the time. They were simultaneously boring and frustrating, and I'd have rather butted heads with Clarisse all day than sit through another lecture during summer break.

But now, I found myself missing those times. I wanted nothing more than to sit down with Annabeth and listen to her rattle off myths and epics about ancient Greece. All of the architecture stuff she was into went straight over my head (no pun intended), but listening to her recite stories about the heroes of legend always filled me with a sense of wonder. She really was an amazing storyteller.

Eventually, I said goodbye to Chris and left the infirmary, making my way back to my cabin. As I headed up the elevator, I resolved to find Luke first thing in the morning and make amends. As mad as I was at him, I knew we couldn't stay on bad terms. He was technically my superior, and Kronos wouldn't allow me to continue to disobey him. Besides, if this uprising was going to be a success, we had to learn to work together, not against each other.

The elevator chimed and its doors slid open, revealing the ornate hallway leading to my room. My mind raced as I walked, wondering how I would approach him tomorrow, until I halted at the mahogany door that led to Kronos's stateroom. With his army having increased in number, his presence had grown so strong that I could feel him even outside the room.

Kronos's door was the only other room in the hallway my keycard could open. I stood there for a moment, hands clasped nervously, and debated on whether to go in or not. I'd never spoken to him without Luke present before. As his lieutenant, it was always Luke's job to report to the Titan king and receive orders. The only times I was ever brought along were when Kronos wanted to speak with me directly.

But Luke wasn't here right now, and Kronos would be expecting a report of our mission. One way or another, he'd hear about the disagreement we had, as well as my insubordination. That is, if he didn't know already. It was always hard to gauge how much the Titan king was able to see.

Letting out a sigh, I steeled myself and approached the door. Was I supposed to knock first? Was it rude to barge in on a sarcophagus unannounced? As I raised my fist up to the door, I froze. There were voices on the other side of the frame. One was unmistakably the deep metallic roughness of the Titan king's voice. The other…

Without thinking, I turned the handle and shoved it open. Luke's head spun to look at me, and his eyes flashed in anger. I stood there for a moment, stunned. I knew he was fast, but to think he got back to the ship this quickly… He may have even gotten here before I did.

"You're interrupting. Wait outside," he commanded tersely.

The room dimmed, yet the golden sarcophagus glowed as brilliantly as ever.

_No_, the deep voice pervaded the room. _He shall come forth and kneel. I wish to hear what the boy has to say._

"My lord—"

_Silence, Luke. I would hear his side before passing judgement. Approach, boy._

Welp, I'm in trouble. Slowly, I approached Luke and the dais, swallowing down my nervousness. I could feel Luke glaring a hole in the side of my face as I knelt. Kronos's presence loomed over me, making me feel like I was on Olympus again, kneeling before an angry Zeus, only this sensation was much more ancient.

_Luke informed me of your deliberate act of sabotage in order to protect your precious camp. Need I remind you of the oath you swore to me on the River Styx? Don't tell me you mean to betray me so soon after joining._

It took me a minute to find my voice under Kronos's withering focus. "My lord, I have no intention of betraying you. Our goals are still the same. We'll get the Golden Fleece, revive Thalia, and we'll convince her to join us. It's just… We came across some new information on our way to Camp Half-Blood. Information that I thought called for a change in strategy."

_Information? Luke failed to mention this new information to me_. _Elaborate._

Beside me, Luke shifted, but remained silent. I pressed on.

"We learned the location of the Golden Fleece, which was the only thing stopping us from getting it ourselves. If we'd gone ahead and poisoned the tree, we would have been putting ourselves on a time limit, and entrusting the success of our quest to a few inexperienced campers. I believe if we do it my way and get it ourselves, we have a much better chance of succeeding."

Kronos was silent for a moment, digesting this new information. _And, pray tell_, _where exactly is the Golden Fleece located?_

"We were given coordinates, and I looked them up as soon as I got back. It's on a remote island somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle. Let me search for it, and I'm sure I could get it myself."

Luke scoffed and swivelled his head to stare out the window. I heard him mutter under his breath, "_Told you so._" I looked at him curiously, about to ask what he meant by that, when the room filled with a shrill grating sound that I soon recognized as laughter from the sarcophagus.

_How naive. I have half a mind to allow you to sail there only to find that this plan you staked so much on is not as easy as it sounds._

Confused, I racked my brain, wondering what could be so difficult about going to this remote island. Of course, I'd heard the stories of ships that mysteriously disappeared while sailing through the Bermuda Triangle, but I'd always associated those with freak storms and ocean currents, things that wouldn't be a problem for me. What else could possibly get in the way? It wasn't like that stretch of water was cursed or anything. That was just a myth, right?

But even as the thought crossed my mind, I realized that was stupid. Over the last year, I'd nearly been killed by plenty of things that I would've previously considered 'just myths'.

Luke shook his head. "What, did you think you'd just be able to sail up to this island, waltz up the beach, and find the Fleece just laying there?"

I hadn't really thought about what would happen after we reached the island. "Um," I stuttered. "Well... kinda?"

"It's not that easy. The Fleece is in the Sea of Monsters, Percy."

I blinked, my eyes darting from Luke to the sarcophagus and back to Luke.

Luke stared at me, waiting for me to react in some way, but seeing my blank face made him roll his eyes. "You know, the Clashing Rocks? Charybdis? Scylla? Sea serpents galore? The Sea of Monsters! It was a notoriously difficult stretch of water to navigate in Ancient Greece, and it migrated here with the rest of Western Civilization. It's in the Bermuda Triangle now."

It suddenly made sense to me why we'd been avoiding that area when we sailed up and down the coast during our recruitment runs. At the time, I'd chalked it up to it simply being out of our way, but now I understood. So, it wouldn't be as easy as I'd thought it would be, but I vaguely remembered one of the stories Annabeth had told me during my Greek lessons about a group of heroes who'd done it before.

"But it's not impossible to navigate, right?" I asked. "The astronauts did it."

Luke's eyebrows furrowed for a moment before he sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I assume you mean the _Argonauts_. And yes, they sailed through the Sea of Monsters, but they had the most powerful ship of their time and an all-star team of Greek heroes. Jason, Oedipus, and Hercules just to name a few. We wouldn't even make it past the Clashing Rocks with a ship this size."

"Then we'll find a smaller ship," I said. "Sea of Monsters or not, the fact still remains that we're the best suited demigods for this task." I turned back to the sarcophagus, where Kronos had been silently observing our exchange. "Lord Kronos, please, grant us the quest to retrieve the Golden Fleece from the Sea of Monsters."

The sarcophagus thrummed with power as the Titan king deliberated, luminating the otherwise dark room in a golden light. Luke stared resolutely at the casket, his scar becoming more pronounced in the glow. Finally, the Titan king's voice rumbled from below.

_No. I cannot send my lieutenant and the hero of the prophecy on a quest as dangerous as this. Not with your level of training. You're both vital to the war effort. Permission denied.._

"B-but, my lord—" I stuttered. His response came as a shock to me. My level of training wasn't enough? I'd perfected my control over water, and I was just as skilled a sword fighter as Luke. I even had the ability to command freaking _thunderstorms_ in my arsenal. How was my training not sufficient for a task like this?

Kronos silenced me immediately. _I have spoken. You will not be leaving this ship. And do not think that I've forgotten about your disobedience today. This is an army, not a round table. You must follow orders, and you will learn your place. Am I understood?_

I wanted to press further, ask him to reconsider. I felt like I had to prove myself, show him that I _was_ capable of succeeding on this quest. But instead, I bit my lip and lowered my head.

"Yes, Lord Kronos. But… If we're not allowed to go after the Fleece, then who will you send?"

_Nobody,_ the disembodied voice rasped.

Nobody… but then—the plan was off? We weren't going after the Golden Fleece anymore? Had I really messed up our plans that badly that we could no longer continue?

_I sense your confusion. Do not worry. The original plan is still in motion. The little heroes of Camp Half-Blood will retrieve the Fleece and bring it back to their camp._

Kronos's explanation only raised more questions, more confusion. My head began to hurt. It felt like I was missing something, like Luke and Kronos were one step ahead of me. "But why would they do that?" I asked. "We didn't poison Thalia's tree. They don't have an incentive to get the Fleece."

_Fortunately, my lieutenant here anticipated your behavior, and had the foresight to safeguard the plan._

Bewildered, I turned to Luke, who had produced something from his pocket. He held it out so I could see what it was. My eyes widened when I recognized it.

It was the vial he'd given to Chris when we came across the Elder Python. I thought it had been lost during our hasty retreat to the river, but Chris must've held onto it somehow and given it back to Luke.

A single drop still remained at the bottom of the glass. Luke must have filled it with venom from the fang when I wasn't paying attention. I cursed myself for not having sensed it. I guess my mastery over my powers wasn't as fine-tuned as I'd thought.

Thalia's tree had been poisoned.


End file.
